
Book S}.JE2Js:. 

Copyright W 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



IF YE FULFIL THE ROYAL LAW 



WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

In uniform style. Crown 8vo. Each $1.50 net 

HE RESTORETH MY SOUL 

Press Notices 

" This book attempts to arrive at the essence 
of Christianity, and to show its appHcation to 
present-day life and existing institutions. The 
author shows how, through the perversion of 
the instinct of self-preservation into the vice of 
selfishness, much of the evil of the wodd has 
arisen. . . . The book is written with con- 
siderable historic perspective, and in a style 
that, throughout good, is, when occasion war- 
rants, aglow with imagination. ... A sweet, 
devotional volume." 

"The author has much to say well worth 
pondering over. . . . Altogether a fresh treat- 
ment of a great theme marked by knowledge 
and insight." /- 

WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE 

Contents 

Introduction — I. A Habitation of God — II. 
Christians — III. Shall he do also ? — IV. By this 
shall all men know — ^V. Am I my brother's 
keeper ? — VI. Father, I have sinned — VII. A 
people prepared for Him — VIII. I will counsel 
thee with mine eye upon thee — ^IX. The Urim 
and Thummim — ^X. If I by the finger of God 
— XI. Quit you like men; be strong — XII. 
Behold the Man. 

NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

OF ALL BOOKSELLERS 



IF YE FULFIL THE 
ROYAL LAW 

By y" 
A. H. W/' (Canada) 

Author of **He Restoreth My Soul," "Which 
Temple Ye Are," etc. 



One God, one law, one element. 

And one far-oflF divine event. 

To which the whole creation moves. 

— In Memoriam. 

Is there a thing whereof men say. 

See, this is new ? It hath been already. 

In the ages which were before us. 

— ECCLESIASTES. 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

TTbe fcnic^ecboclier preea 

1916 






Copyright, 1916 

BY 

ELLIOT STOCK 



Ube fftnfcliecbocltec f>te00» l^ew fiock 

MAY 31 !9I6 
©CI,A431273 









CONTENTS 



PAGB 

" Introduction ...... vii 



: CHAPTER I 

^ The Royal Law . . . . . i 

^ CHAPTER II 

Face to Face in the Mount . . • 33 

CHAPTER III 
The Law and the Prophets ... 67 

CHAPTER IV 
The Gospel of the Kingdom . . . 107 

CHAPTER V 
The Falling Away . . . . .157 

CHAPTER VI 
Afterwards ...... 200 

CHAPTER VII 
A New Heaven and a New Earth . . 250 



AN APPEAL TO CHRISTENDOM 



INTRODUCTION 

" I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, which is 
and which was and which is to come, the Aknighty. " 

Rev. i. 8. 

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God." 

John i. i. 

"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father 
will send in My name. He shall teach you all things and bring 
to your remembrance all that I said unto you. " 

John xiv. 26. 

"So then neither is he that planteth an3rthing, neither he 
that watereth; but God who giveth the increase. Now he 
that planteth and he that watereth are one: but each shall 
receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we 
are God's fellow workers; ye are God's husbandry (or, tilled land), 
God's building." 

I Cor. iii. 8, 9. 

1'^HE existence of a universal Royal Law pre- 
supposes a universal Sovereign. The giving 
forth of any one or more laws by a human sovereign 
does not assume that they shall necessarily be 
obeyed. But in the vast Creation of which we 
form a small part, and of which we can conceive a 
very little, in a feeble way, we find an astonishing 
uniformity of obedience to a regular organized 
process.' Paley reminds us that this is brought 

» Paley's Natural Theology. 

vii 



viii Introduction 

about by more than mere contrivance and design. 
He says that "the laws of nature everywhere pre- 
vail; they are uniform, universal. But what do 
we mean by the laws of nature or by any law? 
Effects are produced by power, not by laws. A 
law cannot execute itself. A law refers us to an 
agent. Now an agency so general as that we can- 
not discover its absence, or assign the place in 
which some effect of its continued energy is not 
found, may, in popular language at least, and per- 
haps without much deviation from philosophical 
structures, be called universal ; and with not quite 
the same, but with no inconsiderable propriety, 
the person or Being in whom that power resides, 
or from whom it is derived, may be taken to be 
omnipresent. He who upholds all things by His 
power may be said to be everywhere present." 
Besides this convincing reference to the om- 
niscience, the omnipotence and the omnipresence 
of the Deity, he refers to His Eternal character 
also. He says, "Eternity is a negative idea, 
clothed with a positive name. It supposes, in 
that to which it is applied, a present existence. As 
applied to the Deity, it has not been controverted 
by those who acknowledge a Deity at all. Most 
assuredly there never was a time in which nothing 
existed, because that condition must have con- 
tinued. The universal blank must have remained ; 
nothing could rise up out of it ; nothing could ever 
have existed since; nothing could exist now. In 



Introduction ix 

strictness, however, we have no concern with 
duration prior to that of the visible world. Upon 
this article therefore of theology it is sufficient to 
know, that the contriver necessarily existed before 
the contrivance." He also calls our attention to 
the proof of the unity of the Deity in the uniform- 
ity of the plan observable in the universe. He 
says, "The universe itself is a system; each part 
either depending upon other parts or being con- 
nected with other parts by some common law of 
motion, or by the presence of some common sub- 
stance. " Regarding the goodness of God's work, 
he says, "The proof of the Divine Goodness rests 
upon two propositions, each, as we contend, capa- 
ble of being made out by observation drawn from 
the appearances of nature." The first is, "that 
in a vast plurality of instances in which contrivance 
is perceived, the design of the contrivance is bene- 
ficial." The second, "That the Deity has super- 
added pleasure to animal sensations, beyond what 
was necessary for any other purpose, or when the 
purpose, so far as it was necessary, might have been 
effected by the operation of pain." Paley also 
takes the stand that * ' the world abounds with con- 
trivances; and all the contrivances which we are 
acquainted with are directed to beneficial purposes. 
Evil no doubt rests, but is never, that we can per- 
ceive, the object of contrivance. " But we cannot 
know that there exists evil without allowing that 
it too may have been within the range of this con- 



X Introduction 

trivance. That our Creator had power to create 
us good, and at the same time give us the ability 
and desire to remain good, is as certain as is His 
omnipotence. That He had the wisdom to create 
us with such quaHties as fitted us into His design, 
is as certain as is His omniscience. That He could 
everywhere direct our impulses and aspirations, is 
as certain as His omnipresence. That He did 
purposely create us liable to fall into sin, or into 
"missing the mark, " as Ruskin urges it should be 
understood, is as certain as His inspired Word; 
wherein He says, "I form the light, and create 
darkness ; I make peace and create evil. " And He 
adds for our warning, anticipating that He would 
be misunderstood, "Shall the clay say to Him that 
fashioned it. What makest thou ? " If our creation 
was not to be unusual and of universal value, why 
did the angels of heaven desire to look into it? 
What made us to be of unusual interest to them? 
It seems very plain to us, that the contrivance, as 
Paley calls it, of the experience of our race, was to 
partake of a period of "missing the mark" first; 
but that this preliminary evil should prove to be 
such a lesson to ourselves and others, that ulti- 
mately it would prove to be absolutely beneficial. 
That our Creator designed our experience we can 
scarcely deny from the evidence of His attributes, 
added to that of His written Word. That it was 
to be of a widely beneficial influence we must assume, 
as the Creator Who is the All- Wise as well as the 



Introduction xi 

All-Mighty, pronounced it to be good. So we are 
obliged to admit, that had we but the wider vision 
of even the watching angels, we too would pro- 
nounce it to be ultimately good. We are not 
admitting a dual influential power of half good and 
half evil, as did some of our earlier religionists, 
although their idea was less insulting to our Creator 
than the idea that He could not avoid our fall. 
But we are contending that it was our kind and 
pitiful Creator's way of bringing us to know that 
fire bums by letting us scorch our childish fingers 
a few times ; and that real obedience to our Parent 
brings joy and happiness and reward, while dis- 
obedience to our grieved Parent brings punish- 
ment to ourselves and helps to bring disorder to 
the general process or household of God our Father. 
So we have been burning our fingers, aye, our very 
souls; and we have been a riotous and unruly 
household, and this conduct has not produced in us 
a happy people. We know of no peoples who were 
happy, during their earthly experience, excepting 
those who at times and for a short while were 
attempting to live up to their highest ideals, the 
best they knew. The ideal of a soul or nation is 
its criterion of judgment ; and few souls or nations 
have lived up to this self-imposed ideal. But 
mostly, we have all been smarting from the fires 
of forbidden indulgences and weeping noisily over 
our well-merited punishment. But now we are 
quite a grown-up race ; at least many of our peoples 



xii Introduction 

are, and we had better cease acting like young 
ignorant children, or we shall not be thought by 
the watchers to have our spiritual senses ; we shall 
appear as spiritual imbeciles, and indeed, mental 
imbeciles as well, if reason is a part of judgment; 
for it is our minds which decide our attitude and 
conduct in all things, spiritual matters included. 
We see that the lesson of our experience is to be a 
lesson also for the angels, perhaps for the good as 
well as for those who are disobediently inclined 
or absolutely rebellious. We learn from Jude, 
when he is warning those of the faith concerning 
the danger of their falling into error, that, ''Angels 
that kept not their own principality, but left their 
proper habitation. He hath kept in everlasting 
bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the 
great day." Peter also refers to these disobedient 
angels who are in darkness reserved unto Judgment. 
The knowledge that angels fell from the obedient 
way, proves to us that they had not the strength 
of character given them to stand their trial. And 
we find that they are still somewhere held in a state 
of (we may assume I think) spiritual darkness 
awaiting judgment. Shall this darkness terminate 
in death, or shall the Creator say unto these, 
' ' Let there be light ' ' ? We do not know ; nor do we 
need to know. We do know that He has said to 
us. Let there be light, and we do need to know that 
this fact is our judgment; that we will not to any 
measurable extent allow this Light to come in and 



Introduction xiii 

fully radiate our habit-darkened souls, is our su- 
preme folly. The vista of the Eternal is infinite 
and His designs are surely right. I think some 
one has, perhaps wisely, said that evil, or most of 
that which to us seems to be evil, is only good in 
the early stages of its making. I think we had 
better concede this to be true, for it agrees with the 
Creator's word at our creation. Our individual 
entities may have true immortality if we be proven 
to be worthy of so wonderful a gift of experience. 
If this is so, and it is scriptural to assume it, does 
not our human experience give us just the lesson 
that shall tend to keep us in the path of willing 
obedience so long as our memories retain the 
knowledge of the terrible results in pain and misery 
of our wilful sinning? Shall we not in all our fu- 
ture temptations, if such there be, remember the 
scars of our scorched fingers and the pain of the 
results of our disobedience? Shall we not be 
warned by the memory of our natal period, and of 
how as little ones we "missed the mark" for so 
many weary days? Paul says to the Philippians, 
"I press on toward the goal (or mark, A. V.) unto 
the prize of the high (or upward) calling of God in 
Christ Jesus." And during these eternal experi- 
ences which lie before us, shall we not always be 
glad, if we have according to our light pressed up- 
ward towards the mark; and if we have not spent 
all our earth-days in wilfully, or it may be care- 
lessly, "missing the mark," in sinning? But if 



xiv Introduction 

we do thus err we have no assurance that we shall 
have entity or memory in eternity ; but rather that 
by some process, either long or short, we shall be 
destroyed. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
The past is in the hands of God, Who contrives 
and wills all things. The present He gives us with 
its responsibility and its promise. At this eventful 
day of separating the evil of the past from the 
incoming of good for our future Holy City, a 
human being's only business in life is to be a unit 
of an advancing army, whose battlefield lies in the 
difference between good and evil, and usually in 
our accustomed walks of life. Just to walk right, 
and tmder Christ's rule, brings each of us, one by 
one, into this army which is already marching 
steadily toward the Holy City, the Kingdom of 
Heaven. Our six thousand years are nearly con- 
summated. Ours is the day of J05rful hope, if we 
love His appearing; or of terrible despair, if our 
vision is completely occupied with selfish desires 
and worldly aspirations. We are obliged by the 
crucial character of the particular period in which 
we find ourselves to-day, to choose definitely 
which we individually propose to do. Shall we 
press upward toward the Mark, or shall we con- 
tinue to ignominiously miss it, in a base retreat 
destruction-ward ? 

There are some inherent and half -latent qualities 
in the hearts of all men, no matter in what condi- 
tion of life they may be foimd. We shall find that 



Introduction xv 

the same quality of observation and conclusion 
which has led the most religious of scientific minds 
to endeavour to draw the attention of the less 
learned or more careless to the evidence for the 
universality of God's power and contrivance, is 
the same human quality which led the more dark- 
ened minds of the ancient peoples of our Race to 
see evidence of a power and wisdom outside of 
themselves which they took to be remedy for any 
latent desire or need which lay in each man's in- 
most being. Our Creator bestowed on each of the 
two classes of men the same gift, although so widely 
separated in operation by spiri'^.ual and social con- 
dition. We find that there has always been in 
both these classes of mind an inherent desire to 
know more about this Power and Wisdom which 
both could see as being ever3rwhere dominant. 
This desire is so universally prevalent, that where 
you find Man, you shall also find some kind of 
shrine set up as meeting-place between the soul's 
desire and its fulfilment, the Great Father of us 
all. Shrines, beautiful as a dream of heaven, 
shrines as horrible as a nightmare of Hades, shrines 
arbitrary and dogmatic, and shrines idealistic; 
all have been set up just as the soul's conception 
of God's dominance was enlightened by truth. 
And shall we who profess to worship at the acme of 
all these altars, where supreme love to God and 
man is our sole lawful offering, shall we say that 
God did not meet His ignorant children at these 



xvi Introduction 

altars, if their hands and hearts were clean, as they 
conceived of cleanliness? Paul, with his splendid 
vision of the greatness and justice of God, stood 
amidst the various schools of wrangling philoso- 
phers on Mars Hill and addressed them thus : ''Ye 
men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are 
very religious, for as I passed along and observed 
the objects of your worship, I found also an altar 
with this inscription. To an Unknown God. What 
therefore ye worship in ignorance, this I set forth 
unto you. The God that made the world and all 
things therein. He, being Lord of heaven and earth, 
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither 
is He served by men's hands, as though He needed 
anything, seeing He Himself giveth to all life and 
breath and all things; and He made of one every 
nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth, having determined their appointed seasons 
and the bounds of their habitation; that they 
shoiild seek God, if haply they might feel after Him 
and find Him, though He is not far from each of us ; 
for in Him we live and move and have our being ; 
as certain even of your own poets have said : For 
we are also his offspring. " So we must not be too 
haughty over our advanced civilization and over 
our increased knowledge of our Father and His 
designs and their meaning; for with this advance 
rests a grave responsibility towards those who still 
sit in darkness; and there are many peoples even 
to-day who do not even profess to have received 



Introduction xvii 

into their spiritual conception the Light of the 
World. Many conceptions of the Deity have been 
formulated by the peoples of many ages. Some of 
these have borne a little resemblance to true wis- 
dom, most of them have been more like the dreams 
of a disordered brain. The civilization of a people 
has always corresponded with its real conception 
of Deity, or the Supreme Cause and Power, as its 
units found it to be evidenced everywhere. While 
we find that these always correspond, yet we find 
no instance in which a people as a whole live in a 
spiritual state more excellent than that ideal with 
which they clothe their Deity; and scarcely ever 
shall we find a people living nearly up to these 
ideals. No people has produced a conception of 
a mental or spiritual character for their Deity 
which they have not somewhere discovered in 
themselves. In some ancient cults, their many 
gods were invested by them with the attributes 
which they found general in their own characters 
and which seemed to be present in many natural 
objects; these they considered to be worthy of 
worship. They found that the heaven above them 
could rage and weep and flash lightning from its 
eyes, just like an angry woman; that it could 
breathe the softest tenderest zephyr to soothe and 
restore. Because of the versatile, changeable or 
fickle character of this brooding atmosphere in 
which they found themselves, and perhaps mostly 
because of the nourishing and caressing motherli- 



xviii Introduction 

ness of it, they worshipped it in the female form as 
the Queen of Heaven. The sun was strong and 
compelling in its influence over all the earth; its 
warm rays were essential to the recurrent seasons 
of the grains, fruits, and flowers ; it was not fickle, 
but was regular in its rising and setting, in its 
winter and summer moods and its path in the 
heavens. It was a great kindly fatherly, beneficial 
being; therefore it was worshipped as a male god. 
I believe that in the far Orient some worship, or 
try to appease, some very petty gods. These are 
thought to steal and lie and do much petty mis- 
chief. No doubt their worshippers found these 
to be their own general characteristics; else where 
did they get their strange conception ? No matter 
how crude or foolish may be our understanding, we, 
as a race, seem to have vested all power and observ- 
able attributes in that existence which we term 
The Deity. It is not to be wondered at that some 
of our peoples invested their petty gods with evil 
traits of character, as they found these traits to be 
both ever present and powerful to hurt. So we 
come to see that the Natural Theology of to-day 
lends strong reason for the existence of these 
strange old cults amongst us when we were in our 
infant days of ignorance and crude conclusions. 
We were feeling around in the dark just as a babe 
reaches out its little hand in the darkness in search 
of its heart's desire and hope, its loving, brooding 
Mother. The Race was but — 



Introduction xix 

An Infant crying in the night, 
An Infant crying for the light; 
And with no language but a cry. 

Does a mother not heed her babe because it is 
young and ignorant and helpless ? Does the pitiful 
Father not hear these appealing cries, or notice the 
weak hands that try to feel out after Him, if haply 
they might find Him ? The time of our ignorance 
is overlooked, but when we know more about our 
Father's plans for us, more is required of us. If we 
are the wiser children of this great human family 
in spiritual matters, is it not ours to rise early and 
assist to give spiritual meat and drink to the 
younger children, those who are not yet able to 
help themselves, not yet quite understanding what 
spiritual food really is? Where much is given, 
much is required of us. We should remember this 
warning. 

We of the Christian faith have come to be a 
people of ideals which are immeasurably above 
the wisest and cleanest of any ancient religious 
belief, or the teaching of the sanest and wisest of 
the philosophical schools. Was it by natural 
development of species that we became a people 
of these superior ideals ? We are scarcely justified 
in taking that ground without qualifications, as 
our racial experience does not warrant it. Then 
how did we come to have these ideals, which, not- 
withstanding our weakness and sinning, we really 
hold in our holy of holies, where the soul com- 



XX Introduction 

munes with the Divine Presence? We as a Chris- 
tian people have come to clothe the Deity of our 
conception with all the highest attributes which 
we find to be common in the very best of our 
human family. Our conception of God is greatly 
modified from even the Jewish idea of His attri- 
butes. How did this modification come about in 
our faith? How is it that God was by them held 
to be a God of Power and Justice and Vengeance, 
more than of loving care in His power, of mercy in 
His justice, and of forgiveness in His recompensing 
vengeance? In accepting the teaching of the 
Christ, we have come, almost unconsciously, to 
acknowledge that lovingkindness is by far the 
greatest thing in the world. We have come to 
judge our fellows solely from the standpoint of 
that testing word which says, "All things, there- 
fore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto 
you, even so do ye also unto them. For this is 
the Law and the prophets." And rightly so we 
thus judge; or the scriptures are vain and void. 
This causes us to see in God only that which we 
now demand in humanity. But we have come 
almost to forget that He is still a God of power to 
fulfil His promises, and of Justice between man and 
man, and of recompense to us for the good or evil 
character of our minds and habits. We almost 
over-emphasize His loving-kindness, at the expense 
of our fear to disobey His commands. We have 
come to do this from the uplifting of our own ideals 



Introduction xxi 

to the Christ-like standard of forgiveness. We 
have, in self-indulgent licence, come to think that 
although we demand a high ideal in our fellows, 
that ourselves shall be forgiven for any little wicked 
thing we may desire to do. It is not alone our 
Roman Catholic friends who have a scheme of 
self-indulgence in sinning. We should also re- 
member that we ourselves consider it to be justice 
to punish the slight or great offence against the 
common law. But we ask, or demand, of God, 
that He should condone all the licence that we take 
in the breaking of His Royal Law. God has prom- 
ised to forgive the soul that repents and turns away 
from sin ; but we should always remember that He 
separates and destroys wilful and rebellious sinners. 
A sinning soul is working towards the end of its 
own opportunity of eternal continued happiness. 
It is a dangerous miasmic vapour, that induces the 
hope that God will condone wilful sinning; it is not 
the inspiration of truth; for truth says that the 
soul dies which sins; that God destroys all such. 
True, sin lives long and reproduces plentifully; 
but we find by both promises and fulfilments that 
its end is destruction ; and in the experience of our 
peoples, designed by our Creator, we find that sin 
was allowed to run a certain course before de- 
struction consumed it utterly. We find that in 
some cases the repentance of a people destroyed 
the sin ; while in other, and in most instances, the 
people refusing to repent and thus make an end 



xxii Introduction 

of sin were destroyed along with their poisoned 
environment. In this way a complete end was 
made, not only of the unlawful practice, but of 
those who practised it. We have some striking 
historic illustrations of this. We may conclude 
that an experience of sin has been given us, in 
order that we may see its destructive character; 
and that after the lesson is learned by us, and by 
others, then there comes the time of the Harvest. 
The Great Harvest is the objective point of the ex- 
perience of our Race. The wheat and the tares 
are to grow together until the time of the gathering 
in, and the separating of the two classes of seed; 
the one for the Master's future fields of good grain, 
the other for the fires of destruction. We believe 
that Christ and His Executive will work out this 
separating process through the minds and de- 
cisions of humanity, in and by our common law, as 
it is purified and instructed by this Divine Govern- 
ment. Already we see the shadow which is cast 
before these coming redemptive measures. Does 
not our common law already segregate criminals, 
insane persons, and contagiously diseased persons ? 
Is there not a strong movement towards the pre- 
vention of marriage between persons who are not 
fitted, from a physical or mental standpoint, to be 
parents of the future generation? Is any one's 
imagination so dense that he could not suggest a 
passing away forever of the criminal portion of our 
people? No criminal or drunkard should be left 



Introduction xxiii 

free in condition or circumstance to contaminate 
the next generation. Sickness of body or mind 
is only affliction, and should demand our tenderest 
sympathy; but drunkards and general criminals 
should be considered as the true poisoners of our 
next generation. This class should be made to 
cease, by the same common law of segregation, etc, 
A little skilful legislation, and we may in two or 
three generations be a people fitted by cleanly and 
healthy minds and bodies to enter the Holy City of 
the seventh day ; a day wherein our Spiritual nature 
shall have opportunity to develop Godward with- 
out the hindrances of hereditary weakness and 
tendency to special sinning. We should remember 
that the iniquity of those who hate God's Law is 
visited "upon the third and fourth generation." 
We know this to be the case from instances of the 
reappearance of some special weakness of body or 
mind in a person's grandchildren, or perhaps not 
until his great-grandchildren. We doubt not but 
that holy and wise qualities are also so transmitted. 
So taking this fact into consideration, the law- 
makers of our civilized countries cannot hasten too 
quickly to eradicate the poison of criminal tend- 
encies from the experience of our coming genera- 
tions. That so much is already done, or is being 
discussed amongst wise people, is pretty sure 
proof that this remedial movement is already 
inaugurated in a small but very real beginning by 
the Presence of Him whose it is to say what shall 



xxiv Introduction 

and what shall not be done. So, if we be wise, and 
of the spirit of true nobility, sons and daughters of 
God, we shall set out at once to so train the young 
of our race in mental cleanliness and sinlessness, 
that these may be approved and fitting forbears of 
the citizens of the Holy City, aye, some may even 
have the happy experience of being citizens them- 
selves — if we strive earnestly to shorten the time 
of preparation. There is no God-given Law 
against hastening the holy rest of our Sabbath, if 
we desire to do so; on the contrary, it is invited, 
even urged upon us. Do, I pray, give these next 
three generations, as well as the present one, the 
holy and now rare privilege of obeying — with 
confident reason — the commandment which was 
long ago given to the children of the Race, ''Hon- 
our thy Father and thy Mother; that thy days 
may be long, and that it may go well with thee in 
the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee." 
When we look around into the homes of average 
families we cannot wonder much that the little 
clear-eyed children do not honour their parents. 
This command bears heaviest on the parents. 
Happy the child that honours his parents, because 
they are always worthy of honour. If some of us 
have been so blest, let us thank God devoutly 
that He has given us the great privilege of natur- 
ally keeping this law which carries so much promise 
with it. Happy are those who have to learn the 
experience outside of home life to know what sin- 



Introduction xxv 

fill habits and mental uncleanness mean. And 
we should remember that where much is given 
much is required. What are the dear little child- 
ren learning, morally, to-day? The time is now 
come when we should see each little one as a soul 
who shall perhaps help to fulfil the dream of 
mankind, the Kingdom of Righteousness on earth. 
Perhaps there is no phase of religious conception 
so important as that of realizing accurately our 
position in the eternal plan. We take this stand 
because we see it to be a verity that no soul can 
give his best service to his Redeemer until he have 
some approximate knowledge of how the eternal 
plan is progressing, and in just what position his 
field of labour lies. Will natural improvement 
of species teach him this? Only in a very re- 
stricted measure. Time and racial experience 
alone will not teach us the importance of some 
given psychological moment; does not always 
teach us ''Just when and where to strike." We 
find some very ancient seers who knew just where 
and when to do their work, and attempted great 
things in the face of overwhelming odds. Early 
in our human career some walked with God in 
obedience, and became a great power for good; 
and always have a few known the will of God con- 
cerning them in their labours for their fellow hu- 
man souls. God did not wait until we became such 
a wise people as we think ourselves to be to-day, 
before He spoke to us or laid down His Law, or 



xxvi Introduction 

gave forth His designs concerning our lives. The 
Eternal, who is also the Almighty, did not wait for 
the English language, or the prevalence of our 
common education, before setting forth our part 
of His process to us. Long ago He told us of that 
which in the distant future should happen to us; 
and warned us that we must obey Him and not 
criticize His methods. He has done just as He 
told us He would do. We know by His prophetic 
instruction that we are in nearly the last stage of 
the prophetic period. We are now able to look 
back over the great page of history, of prophecies 
and fulfilments, of righteousness rewarded, and 
of sin and its certain doom. As He has dealt with 
sin in the past, so He will continue to deal with it. 
As He has rewarded holy service in the past, so 
may we expect it to be in the future. He was, and 
is, and shall be; and His works change not. 

Always the Word of God was heard. Always 
did He speak to men by some method ; few people 
but ourselves have doubted it. To Adam and 
Eve, to Enoch, to Noah, and to Abraham did 
the Word communicate the Divine Will. After the 
call of Abraham, we have constant evidence of the 
Presence of Jehovah, and His utterances through 
the prophets of Israel. These it was who foretold 
to the people that they might at a distant given 
day expect the Word of God to become incarnate 
and dwell for a short while among man. This 
was so plainly foretold to the people that men in 



Introduction xxvii 

different countries were looking for His arrival at 
the same time ; and were able by the same prophetic 
Word to trace His natal place, though it were only 
a temporary home in a manger. God's plans in 
this process had neither hastened nor failed. Those 
who were too self-filled and careless did not 
watch, and did not understand. The Prophet 
John preceded the Incarnate Word, as a herald 
might precede the entry of an earthly Sovereign. 
The old school of prophets had told this people 
that when this event was imminent they should 
prepare for it by casting up a highway and gather- 
ing out the impeding stones from it. They were 
to prepare the way for the King. John, the prophet, 
called to the children of these same people to repent, 
for the Kingdom of God was at hand. The two 
warning calls are identical in meaning. If we repent 
and turn from sinning we are making the way clear 
for the entry of the King of Righteousness. This 
connexion between Christ's entrance to His 
Kingdom and our repentance is precisely the same 
idea as His teaching that this Kingdom is within 
us, or, in the midst of us; and it places the re- 
sponsibility for the coming of the Kingdom upon 
our wills, that is, if it is to come before its fully 
appointed date ; or, if this time of Judgment of the 
world is to be shortened. When this is clearly 
perceived our position and responsibility to-day 
will be seen to be of vital interest and of grave 
importance. When the new Day arrives, if we 



xxviii Introduction 

are not ready for the Holy City we shall not enter; 
we shall be consigned to destruction in some way 
at some time; for we are assured that no evil can 
enter there. But we know from Scripture and 
external evidence that Christ and His Holy Exe- 
cutive are now with us, and are passing all things 
under the Judgment of the Great Day. We had 
better turn our attention to this phase of human 
life, rather than be so fully occupied with selfish 
aspirations. If we so turn from evil to good, we 
shall have all this illustrious company to assist us 
to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, 
and Satan himself. 

We find that humanity has always had an inher- 
ent instinct which recognized the Domain of the 
Over-Soul. That the human conception of this 
Over- Soul is always in keeping with the highest 
ideals possible to each people is certain, and, I 
believe, undisputed. Henry Drummond well says, 
"The protoplasm in man has a something in ad- 
dition to its instinct or its habits. It has a ca- 
pacity for God. In its capacity for God lies its 
receptivity; it was the very protoplasm that was 
necessary. The chamber is not only ready to 
receive the new life, but the Guest is expected and 
till He comes, is missed. Till then the soul longs 
and yearns, wastes and pines, waving its tentacles 
piteously in the empty air, feeling after God if so 
be that it may find Him. This is not peculiar to 
the protoplasm of the Christian's soul. In every 



Introduction xxix 

land and in every age there have been altars to 
the Known or Unknown God. It is now agreed as 
a mere question of anthropology that the universal 
language of the human soul has always been, *I 
perish with hunger. ' This is what fits it for Christ. 
There is a grandeur in this cry from the depths 
which makes its very unhappiness sublime." 

We, who call ourselves Christians, believe that 
in Christ we have reached out after and found 
the very inmost desire of our longing souls. We 
know that He meets our hopes and fills our highest 
ideals. We wonder that we are so unwilling to 
let Him be Our Peace after having found Him. 
He cannot be Our Peace until we agree to let Him 
raise us up to the level of our own ideals. Our 
change must come through the purification of our 
souls according to His law of righteousness. We 
must be willing for this and make effort towards 
that end. "Take My yoke upon you and learn 
of Me," He says. He will not coerce us though 
the time be matured. He will have a few willing 
souls, but it may be neither you nor me. He can 
do without us. He can do better with us. But we 
cannot do without Him in this world or another. 

Perhaps there is no more deeply seated doctrinal 
doubt in the Christian mind than that concerning 
the fixity of our individual eternal destiny. We 
agree that both theological parties can quote Scrip- 
ture which seems to give support to each particular 
theory. Then are both views true ? If not, which 



XXX Introduction 

is false? If either is found to be false, then the 
New Testament Scriptures are not to be relied 
upon. If these are not inspired and to be relied 
on, we do not feel sure of anything in our religion 
of Christianity. Had we no preconceived ideas 
borrowed from the wrangling "early fathers" and 
theologians of the middle ages, we might not have 
had so much quarrelling over this vexed doctrine. 
We do not love controversy now as we then did. 
We seem to be feeling out more after the heart of 
the Redeemer than after some new "ism" to 
wrangle over. We are searching for the old path 
that He walked in and invited all who were like 
simple little children to walk therein with Him. 
That our destiny in some respects is marked out 
for us who can doubt? That men were and are 
distinctly called to their special form of service is 
clearly and frequently taught in God's Word. 
But, that there is a Universal Call to repentance 
unto salvation, is equally sure, and cannot be 
disputed with reason by the fair-minded Scripture 
student. We find the cause of these two diverse 
theories to be a misapplication of the Word; as 
where our Lord tells His disciples, "Ye did not 
choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you 
that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your 
fruit should abide ; that whatsoever ye shall ask of 
the Father in My name, He may give to you." 
Here our Lord was speaking of the call to a very 
special spiritual service, and not of the invitation to 



Introduction xxxi 

eternal life. A few verses further on in this same 
address He is speaking of those who refused to 
believe on Him, but who rather persecuted Christ 
and His disciples. He says here, "If I had not 
come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; 
but now they have no excuse for their sin. " There 
is certainly personal responsibility signified here. 
There is so much call to repentance unto salvation 
and eternal life in God's Word, that we must 
accuse God Himself of mocking our misery, if we 
may not accept the call to repentance because of 
our predestined destruction. ' * Come, ' ' — ' ' If ye 
will ye may, " seems to ring out loud and clear and 
kind all through both Books. If we examine all 
these seemingly conflicting texts by their gram- 
matical connexions and by the general tenor and 
teaching of both Books, we shall find, as most 
people concede now, that all are invited and urged 
to partake of salvation through Jesus Christ. 
Amongst these thus generally called to life eternal, 
are many who are especially called to some special 
service. This service they must and do perform; 
but it alone does not assure them of the salvation 
they may be offering to others. Paul said that he 
buffeted himself into a holy obedient life, fearing 
lest after having preached to others he should him- 
self miss the mark. Paul was obliged, was con- 
scripted to preach and was prepared for his work 
by God's f oreordination ; but he confessed that this 
call did not include foreordained eternal life. To 



xxxii Introduction 

this he was obliged to attain by striving after it — 
or miss it. If we add to this evidence of the chief 
apostle of the Gospel the teaching of Christ in 
the Revelation and elsewhere as to the specially 
appointed Executive of the Lord Jesus Christ's 
government during His reign, we shall clearly 
see that the difference in these two theories, i. e. 
Freewill and Foreordination, is but the difference 
between the general call to salvation and the 
special call to special service. We may and must 
all work towards Holy Citizenship, just as we may 
and must do so in ordinary citizenship; but we 
are not, many of us, called to be of His special 
Executive; perhaps none are so called to-day, 
though many may be, and certainly are, called 
to special service in Holy Citizenship in various 
purifying ways; just as many are not called to 
share in the direct government of our State, yet 
in the various avenues for the purifying of our 
general citizenship, there need be no limit to num- 
ber; desire to assist, and qualities which are 
suited to the work being the only requisites. Good 
citizenship is quite as essential to the Holy City 
or to a splendid State, as is a good Executive; 
were this not true Christ would have fully reigned 
here nearly two thousand years ago. Long ago, 
it seems, many persons became partly or wholly 
demented over the awful dread that they might 
be foreordained to eternal torture in a lake of fire ; 
but we thank the dear Father that this dreadful 



Introduction xxxiii 

fear is passing away, along with much other cruel 
imaginings of some of the old wrangling and hating 
theologians. But had the doctrine been really- 
taught in Scripture as these saw it — we believe 
honestly — still there need have been no despond- 
ency or despair over it, because even these wran- 
glers could not deny that those who willed or wished 
to be saved might attain to it. This would, if 
ordinary reason and logic had been employed, at 
once allay all fears ; as those who willed, must be 
feeling the predestined call; if they cared so much 
that they became almost demented, they were 
certainly willing and desiring to be saved; and it 
is constantly taught that our salvation through 
Christ is dependent on our wills. So if this doc- 
trine is a verity, it still amounts to the same as the 
Freewill theory ; as in that theory also the careless 
and unwilling are not saved, as in the other they are 
not called. Indifference is as death-producing a 
sin as rebellion, both bring the soul to destruction. 
But we have this one strong, nay, invincible, point 
in favour of Freewill, namely, that nowhere are 
we taught that a repentant soul is destroyed. 
Therefore, at this late and crucial day, it were far 
wiser to believe and teach the surest plan of safety. 
If repentance from all our sinning, and studied 
obedience to God's law, trusting in Christ to be 
our Saviour and Mediator, trusting in His suf- 
ficiency as best we understand it, to bring us unto 
Life Eternal, and trusting in the Holy Spirit to 



xxxiv Introduction 

direct our understanding wherein it may fail in 
accuracy — if this is sufficient to save our souls and 
make us good people, why not forget the old 
wrangles and try a little of the truly obedient and 
simple and saving doctrines that the | children can 
understand as well as we. We had better learn to 
do the will of the Father and then we shall be in a 
more reasonable condition to know of the teaching. 
If we become obedient, we become so from our 
agreement with the Christian ideals, or from fear 
of the consequence of rebellion. It will take both 
motives to bring our whole peoples into the right- 
eous citizenship of the Holy City. It takes both 
motives to keep our civilized peoples obedient to 
our civil Law. Our laws are the ideals of our best 
thinkers, who would obey them were they not 
enforced by law; but being enforced they become 
the cause of evil people also acting within some 
measure of these ideals. Forced decency is better 
than indecency. So the idealist should strive, and 
he nearly always does strive, to bring his ideals 
of citizenship into the common law, in order that 
his fellow-man whose standard of ethics is much 
lower, may be raised by law into a being of holier 
habits ; and so shall we all advance towards a high 
and righteous condition. 

We, as a Race, are called upon to repent as units 
of a great whole, and we must turn from all our 
unrighteousness, as units of a great whole; and 
we must each become absolutely obedient to The 



Introduction xxxv 

Royal Law. The authority which gives validity 
to this Law is vested in The Crucified One. Chris- 
tendom acknowledges this to be true. At the 
present day we are at the period when we are to 
become obedient to this Law or be destroyed by 
some method at some place and at some time. At 
least, we know that we cannot be disobedient and 
live eternally. This we do know for a certainty. 
We who intend to obey this Law shall doubtless 
be divided into two classes as above noted. First 
and infinitely more honourable are those whose 
moral status of character is in spirit equal to the 
Law, and we believe there are great numbers of 
such; that is, these see in the Law their own un- 
attained ideals and gladly welcome movements 
which render it more nearly possible of attainment. 
The second class, and infinitely the inferior, are 
those who obey the Law from fear of punishment 
or the opinion of their fellows. Of course, good 
conduct, even from fear, is better than evil, which 
is a warning against High Heaven. 

As soon as we make attempt at obedience to 
Law, if we be of the first class, we shall find our- 
selves approaching the fires and thunders of the 
Mount of God. We come face to face with our 
Lawgiver, and we are obliged to consider His 
words. We come to the Light, where all our aims 
and works shall pass before the searching judg- 
ment of this Lawgiver. They are found wanting 
or weighing by this examination; and the verdict 



xxxvi Introduction 

will be right. If we be of the second class who fear 
to approach the Mount of God's Law, but wait 
miserably apart, until the Law is brought to us, 
we shall be very unhappy people ; but a wiser and 
more believing company of souls than those 
who go on in their habits of sinning, saying, "He 
tarrieth, and things are just as they always were. " 
We had better, as many as dare, approach the 
Mount bravely and honestly and hopefully, so 
that we may write the Law in the stone of the 
common law for those who fear to search for it. 

We shall find that all the Law and the prophets 
point to but two great trends of thought and result- 
ant conduct. These two are briefly contained 
in the two commands to love God and love your 
fellow-men. To love God we are obhged to recog- 
nize Him as that Home in which we live and move 
and have our being ; and if we will but let our minds 
dwell upon it for a moment, we shall see it to be 
a Home of such infinitely wonderful possibilities, 
if we be living in perfect unity with Him, that 
our hearts shall reach out towards Him in tender 
trust, hoping that somewhere, sometime, we shall 
be found to be less unworthy of His relationship 
to us as Father. We feel that we may hope that 
somehow we shall grow to be a people fitted for 
His presence. He has told us that if we are to 
become His true children we must take His re- 
proofs and His chastenings, just as little children 
do from their parents, and respect and love them 



Introduction xxxvii 

the more. The second thought in the Law is that 
we are to love each other. And Christ has explained 
to us just what this means, with careful precision, 
in these words: "All things therefore whatsoever 
ye would that men should do unto you even so 
do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the 
prophets." This signifies that we do not love 
either God or man unless we keep this second com- 
mandment. It is the testing of our standpoint 
of obedience. Love to God and disobedience to 
Him cannot co-exist in one heart. 

When this high ideal is permanently set up in 
the hearts of men, and is realized in their con- 
duct, we shall not be far from the Kingdom of 
Heaven on earth. That it is now the standard of 
ethics for a large and ever increasing proportion 
of our people is a hopeful sign. It is when we 
unitedly set up Christ in our hearts, and our con- 
duct becomes holy, that He reigns. He must reign 
within first, and not from a worldly kingdom. 
In time all the earth shall be His obedient Kingdom. 
And it is not wise of us to expect the spectacular; 
for this reign comes like a thief in the night, or 
unobserved, unless we be watching for its expected 
appearance; and it may be in some ways helped 
on by those who do not confess Him, but are doing 
work for Him unconsciously, through the children 
of men. Wherever you see loving-kindness, truth, 
justice, mercy, and righteousness being introduced, 
there shall you also see the Kingdom of our Lord 



xxxviii Introduction 

and of His Christ being, maybe quietly, but surely, 
inaugurated. 

It has been the destiny of some of our Race to 
fall away from the truth after having at first 
received it with pious gladness of heart. The 
children of Abraham were at first careful to be 
obedient to the Divine leadings. This brought 
them great increase of numbers as a tribe, and, in 
time, brought them the freedom and affluence of a 
great nation ; also, alas, it brought them that pride 
of heart and evil association which was the cause 
of their falling away from obedience into a re- 
bellious condition, and from that into homeless 
oppression and dispersion. The Christian Church 
also started out with a pious gladness and trust in 
their Lord. They too increased and prospered, 
until they too became a great people and a menace 
of power and prosperity to the Empire to which 
they were subjected. The Christians also became 
a great nation, and indeed ruled over many na- 
tions; although by a somewhat different method. 
These, too, became corrupted by evil association 
and by pride of heart until their spirituality was 
wellnigh exhausted from starvation or smothered 
by the allurements of the world, the flesh, and the 
evil one. Certainly these two fell away ; all but the 
few; as it was with the former religionist. And so 
in our individual experience, do we not start out 
full of hopeful zeal, but alas do we not also, many 
of us, become so mixed up with the idolatrous world 



Introduction xxxix 

around us, that we fall into actual sin again and 
again? And to-day, where shall we find many, or 
perhaps any, who never fall into conscious sin? 
And yet we think that we love God and desire to 
keep His Law, 

We have warning after warning of the danger 
that lies in this course of aimless and desultory 
trifling with the religious life. We have example 
after example, that what man or groups of men 
sow, that also shall they reap. We find that even 
a very few faithful souls can save a whole city 
from destruction, and that God does not destroy 
a city of souls, no matter how wicked they may 
have been, if they do but repent. If they fall 
away, as did Nineveh, after having partaken of 
merciful forgiveness, these become so hardened by 
resistance to warning, that they do not again 
repent, but rather take licence from God's for- 
bearance and continue in the course of sinning 
which ensures their ultimate destruction, as was 
the end of this notable old city of men. She was 
ultimately utterly swept off the site of her greatly 
privileged existence. We had better apply these 
obvious lessons to our individual and national 
experience, if we wish for an existence in the com- 
ing years. The past lies behind us. Its history is 
ours to read, but not to make. Before us lie only 
two cities of souls which need to interest us deeply 
to-day: the City of Eternal Life, and the City of 
Destruction ; the Holy City, and the Wicked City. 



xl Introduction 

We pass into our appointed place in the one or 
the other according as our work is ; and we should 
remember that there is — to our knowledge — no 
neutral City for the soul of a man, in which he 
may avoid these two poles in character and faith. 
Our work is always governed by our wills. Our 
wills are influenced by our attitude towards these 
two main points of the Law, viz. : Our believing 
love of God, and our consistent conduct one to- 
wards another. The Father has appointed His 
Son to save us from sin and thus from death ; and 
we may take the oath of allegiance to Him and 
grow from perfection unto perfection under His 
brotherly and kingly authority, or we may frater- 
nize with Satan and his executive — as we now 
mostly do — and find our ultimate destruction in 
some way, at some time. What this weary way 
is we are not told, except in figure ; and God forbid 
that any of us who confess to His name should ever 
find out in the future for ourselves from sad experi- 
ence. Surely the Holy City is more attractive to 
the moral character of our civilized people than the 
selfish instincts which lead us directly into Gehenna. 
It is said, "Bear ye one another's burdens and so 
fulfil the Law of Christ. " In no cause is it more 
necessary to do this than in our mutual attempt at 
sinlessness. It is so difficult to live the sinless life 
when surrounded by a tempting environment. If 
we could unite in our aim and purpose, and unite 
to destroy all that which now destroys us, should 



Introduction xK 

we not be fulfilling the Law of Christ, the Royal 
Law? Should we not then have the aid of the 
Executive of our King and Redeemer? Perhaps 
if a national and international (each nation in his 
own way) season of earnest sincere prayer were 
held for — not our particular "ism" — but for 
Christ's reign, throughout all Christendom, it would 
hasten the day of our obedience, that is if we 
follow it up by simple, earnest endeavour towards 
this holy consummation. But to think that we 
can delay His reign with impunity, is to conclude 
without one iota of reason. Do not mistake God's 
forgiving mercy for licence to sin. The Harvest is 
ripe, the day of separating the good from the evil 
is upon us, the new Sabbath day is not far away, 
and if we can shorten the time of Satan's reign, 
why do we not unite to do so? Each soul must 
answer for itself; is answering for itself even now. 
Who then shall be our Over-Lord ? 

We are told to work out our own salvation with 
fear and trembling. With fear of sinning, and so 
missing the Mark; and with trembling, in our 
earnestness to acquire that soundness which shall 
allow our Redeemer to save us from death through 
His sacrificial mediatorship, Paul writes to Tim- 
othy concerning this vital point thus, *'I exhort 
therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, 
intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men, 
for kings and all that are in high places; that we 
may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness 



xlii Introduction 

and gravity. This is good and acceptable in the 
sight of God our Saviour ; who would have all men 
to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. 
For there is one God, one mediator also between 
God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who 
gave Himself a ransom for all : the testimony to be 
borne in its own times ; whereunto I was appointed 
a herald (or preacher) and an apostle, a teacher 
of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire there- 
fore that the men pray in every place lifting up 
holy hands, without wrath or disputings. " 

And so I live you see, 

Go through the world, try, prove, reject, 

Prefer, still struggling to efiEect 

My welfare; happy that I can 

Be crossed and thwarted as a man. 

Not left in God's contempt apart. 

With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart, 

Tame in earth's paddock as her prize. 

Thank God, no paradise stands barred 

To entry, and I find it hard 

To be a Christian, as I said. 

Browning, 



If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 



CHAPTER I 

THE ROYAL LAW 

" Howbeit if ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the scripture, 
'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' ye do well: but if 
ye have respect of persons ye commit sin, being convicted by the 
Law as transgressors." 

James ii. 8, 9. 

"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth 
Jehovah require of thee but to do justly and to love kindness and 
to walk humbly with thy God?" 

MiCAH vi. 8. 

"And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of 
God and of the Lamb shall be therein and His servants shall serve 
Him; and they shall see His face and His name shall be on their 
foreheads." 

Rev. xxii. 3, 4. 

THE Royal Law: How shall we attain even 
the most remote conception of what this 
really means ? If we could for a moment join that 
company of Sons of God who shouted for joy in 
unison with the song of the stars at the birth of 
our, as yet, most sorrowful earth, we might catch 



2 If Ye Fullfil the Royal Law 

some faint glimmer of light on this infinite and 
universal rhythm of process, which, for want of a 
more descriptive term, we may call Natural Law. 
If one might, from some wondrous vantage ground, 
observe this process in all its intricacy, its infinite 
variety of method, order, and purpose, we might be 
brought to that mental state wherein we should 
find that we must term this controlling influence 
The Royal Law. We should certainly find that 
there is an existent Super-Lawgiver in the universe 
whose wisdom and energy is as immeasurable in the 
minutiae of creation and preservation as it is in 
the vast and unthinkable whole. We find Him 
to be as wonderfully wise and active in the micro- 
scopic atom of the minutest cell of an organism, 
as we do in the binding of the sweet cluster of the 
Pleiades, the loosing of the bands of Orion, or in 
the guiding of the Bear with his train. It is this 
same Lawgiver who puts wisdom in the inward 
parts and teaches the young ravens to cry unto 
Him for their daily food. 

If we are unappreciative of the exceedingly ela- 
borate process which we term Natural Law, per- 
haps we have not considered it to the extent of our 
mental ability to penetrate into these intricacies of 
nature. Many of us have not the time, or perhaps 
the inclination, for these deeper studies of natural 
objects, and are well satisfied if they do but fulfil 
their mission by serving us. But it is a field that is 
inexhaustible in treasure, as the student finds on 



The Royal Law 3 

delving into its depths with ever so Httle time or 
skill. He finds that all conceivable or observable 
objects on analysis dissolve themselves into perfect 
kingdoms, each perfectly organized to fulfil its own 
mission, be it great or seemingly small. He will 
also find this peculiarity to obtain in all cases, viz., 
that the larger and more important the object may 
be found to be, the more utterly dependent it is 
upon the perfection of its units; we know this by 
the many instances which our wise scientists have 
shown us. There are data in plenty from which to 
draw such a conclusion. We shall find that all 
wholes are composed of many units in combination ; 
co-dependent on one another; thus making a 
conditional completeness. It is difficult to trace 
a more essential sub-law than this, as it works 
throughout the various kingdoms in the universe 
which are embraced by Natural Law. We see a 
stretch of beautiful landscape as a complete whole ; 
did we but analyze this whole, down to its last and 
minutest atom or cell, we should find that we were 
having brought to our attention kingdoms upon 
kingdoms of animate or inanimate, or what we 
choose to consider as inanimate, matter, all obey- 
ing, with more or less exactness, the Royal Law. 
The great water stretches of the earth with their 
ebb and flow, their storms and calms, the gigantic 
living creatures which are contained in their vast, 
measureless, rolling beds ; is this not a kingdom of 
sub-kingdoms composed of units, each one living 



4 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

under a great universal law from which there is no 
escape? Does not the stellar army above us on its 
ever cycling march (a very little of which may be 
observed by us) fill us with awe? Do we ever 
pause to consider the possible variety of kingdoms 
contained therein? Do we ever try to estimate 
what would be the result to them of disobedience? 
Have we ever tried to conceive of universal chaos ? 
Have we thought of the vital principle of the vast 
being so utterly dependent on the minute, the 
great on the small, the whole on the unit, in con- 
nexion with this army of giants which rhythmically 
bestride the dome of the heavens ? We draw from 
science, that there are eons of ages drifting into 
a receding dreamy past, that there is probably a 
never-ending future unrolling before us, like a 
scroll, in the years to come. We draw from the 
Scriptures and our inherent hopes and instincts, 
that there is a state of being perhaps in store for us, 
where life is different, where the density of the 
earthly body does not weigh us down so wearily 
with infirmities and care. We have an instinctive 
hope of this which supports our courage when we 
falter and almost faint by the way. When we 
endeavour to think of all these things in their pro- 
cess and ultimate — if there be an ultimate — issue, 
we feel that we have logical grounds for deducing 
from such evidence that this Universe is one vast 
Kingdom and is thought out, or planned, controlled 
and administered by some Personified Unity of 



The Royal Law 5 

Mind and Authority. It is surely not an over- 
drawn conclusion to consider such a personaHty 
as The Sovereign, and His system of process in 
its multitudinous orderings and workings, as His 
Royal Law ; and thus it has been named. 

But we do not need to search for evidence of this 
super-law only in extraordinary objects and pro- 
cesses which may possibly come within the range 
of our perceptions, but also in the most ordinary 
and familiar objects and processes of our daily 
lives. We may have neither the ability nor the 
opportunity to analyze ourselves or our environ- 
ment; but our Lawgiver, in His kindly care for 
our various desires and requirements, has given 
this ability and opportunity to others, who spend 
their lives in research, and in putting the results of 
their skill and labour into such shape that we may 
learn much of these formations and processes by 
very little effort and time, if we so wish. 

Take, for instance, the human body, as the 
highest known example of nature's mechanism, and 
learn of our Sovereign Creator's care for His 
creatures. Surely it is the fool that hath said in 
his heart. There is no God, and that our bodies 
became such marvels of skill without a Designer 
and Creator. These foolish ones leave a vastly 
greater proposition to be dealt with than that 
which they so unreasonably deny. We may try 
to imagine such a product as the human body 
evolving from chaos; but we should still be in a 



6 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

serious quandary, and we should stand on most 
illogical ground, because, how could evolution 
proceed without Law? How could things take 
symmetrical proportion and shape in chaos and 
by means of chaos? — a state which we take to 
mean, Matter in confusion waiting for the Law of 
order to start it once more into process. We feel 
assured that to a sane mind there is no escape from 
the belief that Natural Law is absolutely omni- 
present and omnipotent in the Universe, and we 
cannot imagine a sane mind thinking of this 
Universal Law as existing in that which was, and 
is, and is to come, without concluding that this 
process is being continuously thought out by a 
Supreme Law-Giver and Law-Enforcer. If this 
were not true, how should we remain in existence ? 
The very air we breathe must be controlled by this 
Law. The tiny waterdrops must exist as a little 
kingdom, under such a Law. The methods em- 
ployed in the sustenance and clothing of our bodies 
are so strange and wonderful that it would be 
insanity indeed did we not recognize in these this 
same controlling Power. There is such a variety 
of creations in the animal, vegetable, and mineral 
kingdoms, placed conveniently for our use to assist 
us in sustaining our lives, that we are filled with 
grateful wonder — or, we ought to be. Are all 
these serving the creatures, who were made in 
God's Image, by chance? 

We must not weary the reader with endless 



The Royal Law 7 

descriptions of the many objects and processes with 
which we are all so familiar, too familiar indeed to 
fully appreciate them, but I do ask of us all to think 
a little more minutely on these things at times, as 
we have opportunity, in order that we may realize 
the actual presence of this great and Parental Law- 
Giver, every moment of our existence, and in 
every object by which we are surrounded in our 
perhaps commonplace lives. Indeed we have no 
right to consider ourselves otherwise than as a part 
of an interesting scheme of our Law-Giver, for such 
we really are; no more, no less. It is a subject far 
too difficult for the human mind to conceive of, 
just how we are formed to appear such absolutely 
separate physical, mental, and spiritual entities^ 
governed in each conceivable atom by the most 
careful law of process, and thus be every instant in 
closest contact with the presence of the Law-Giver 
who is * ' Nearer to us than breathing. Closer than 
hands and feet, " and yet not be, as some one has 
called us, An Atom of the Infinite. We are taught 
as children to say that God is *' everywhere." If 
this be true — and can we deny it ? — then how can 
we have being outside of God's being? Is this a 
kind of pantheism ? We do not intend to support 
any particular theory, be it ancient or modem ; but 
we do feel that we are scriptural and reasonable in 
finding that we cannot possibly separate our pro- 
cess of being or the objects of our environment 
from a Law that is too minute for our finite con- 



8 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

ception, and too enduring and all-encompassing 
for our imagination to dwell upon for long without 
losing our mental balance. It is amply sufficient 
for our present requirements, to know that in the 
Infinite we live and move and have our being; 
and that we are, every one of us, placed each in 
his own responsible position in this great universal 
scheme, by a Super-Law or design from which 
there is no escape and by which we are preserved 
from dissolution and chaos. In His infinite 
kindness He has granted to mankind, who is made 
in His image, a ray of Himself in that wonder of 
His creation, The Human Will. Through this 
gift we find ourselves above the lower orders of His 
earthly creation, and in a position of the very 
gravest responsibility as regards our career on this 
planet. 

In our observation of the various objects which 
we consider inferior to the human personality, we 
find, as we have noted, that these continue in their 
round of existence in such an orderly process that 
we must recognize that they too are governed by 
laws which are observable in their constant work- 
ing and approximately unvarying results. We also 
observe some processes so minute and others so 
gigantically vast and far-reaching that we are 
obliged to conclude that there is a Super-Lawgiver 
whose majestic power will be found to be in keep- 
ing with this exquisite design and process. All this 
applies to the approximately perfect specimens of 



The Royal Law 9 

different types in the many kingdoms which may 
come under the scope of our very limited observa- 
tion and comprehension. But when we become 
quite f amiHar with any one type of plant or animal, 
or even of the mineral kingdom, we frequently find 
that there are specimens which are not quite per- 
fect, which do not accord in some one or more 
particulars with their fellows of the same genus, 
and we also find that these specimens which do not 
quite conform to type are divided into two classes : 
the one with a tendency toward degeneracy, the 
other with a tendency towards improvement of 
species. If the careful seed-grower has a large 
field of uniform plants, which will in turn produce 
many fields of just such plants again, these are, we 
may say, conforming to type. But does he not 
also frequently find that there are some plants so 
inferior in quality to the mass, that he is compelled 
to separate them from the good seed, as being unfit 
from which to reproduce. On the other hand, 
does he not, perhaps less frequently, find some 
plants so excellently developed, that these too 
must be separated from the mass, but for the op- 
posite reason, viz., that they may produce more 
like unto themselves without contamination from 
the inferior. The seed-grower will also probably 
give these extra care ; and thus being separated and 
cared for, a new and more excellent class of seed 
comes into being. In the animal kingdom does 
not this same discriminating care obtain with our 



10 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

stockmen ? And so we find to be already practised 
among us, this method: that we encourage the 
development of traits in that which we consider to 
be the greatest approach towards improvement of 
that species to which the object in question may 
belong. We as human beings have the oppor- 
tunity and also the discriminating talent to do this 
with more or less success in these spheres, and the 
kind Lawgiver seems to have bestowed upon us the 
ability to perform some of these small thoughtful 
works, like unto His works; as object lessons of 
His dealings with our own lives, and our eternal 
soul culture. If we would but consider, as the Lord 
Christ has told us to, we might learn by His 
methods how to endeavour to harmonize our lives 
with the great eternal process. In order that we 
might do this the more intelligently. He gave us — 
shall we say — Spiritual Wills. These Wills are 
forever manifesting a sort of subconscious, or half 
latent, hope of an eternal happy existence ; forever 
desiring but ofttimes fearing. We, feeling guilty 
of sinning, fear the just reward which we know 
should be ours. This gives us a "dread of some- 
thing after death" more than a hope of an un- 
merited happiness. ''Thus conscience does make 
cowards of us all" and we come in time to have 
a self -shortened vision of our being. As our great 
dramatist puts it, our consciences are so guilty and 
our sense of Justice so innate, that we feel a 
cowardly shrinking from looking out into the 



The Royal Law ii 

eternity which we believe lies before us. Aye, 
we are cowards, and our God-given wills are they 
which prevent us from benefiting by that develop- 
ment of species which obtains by our care of the 
inferior creation around us. Christ is our Hus- 
bandman, our Shepherd, and would quickly 
redeem us from our fallen condition if our Wills 
were not warring against Him. Our reasonable 
minds approve of this holy development, but our 
Wills have not as yet fully submitted, hence our 
slow advance on the kingdom of Heaven. If we 
are, as some of our most scientific theologians have 
thought, of more than local and present importance, 
and that our scheme of salvation is to be a lesson to 
angels and we know not whom else ; then it surely 
is in keeping with the importance of our situation, 
that we examine these Wills of ours, to see if there 
be real rebellion in them, or only a sort of weakness 
which is the result of lack of noble and earnest 
effort. Our divine Wills get no exercise when we 
are treading the broad path to spiritual degeneracy. 
We had better begin to develop them by gradual 
but constant exercise, for the day of our separation 
of good from evil is now upon us. The Super- 
Lawgiver has sown His Law amongst us. He will 
expect a harvest from us. He is the Husbandman, 
and will reap and separate. 

We are not at liberty to consider ourselves as the 
centre of the Universe and that all things above 
and below shall bend to our petty desires and our 



12 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

selfish aims. Rather let us consider ourselves as 
living object lessons to other intelligent beings of a 
more spiritual order. We may stand at the mysti- 
cal door of the genesis of our Race, but at most we 
do but find ourselves an event in the great serial 
process. Perhaps we were not quite an ordinary 
creation, but certainly not the first and only one. 
We must also conclude that we are a very interest- 
ing creation, as we learn that the angels desired to 
look into the things which were to be accomplished 
in the course of our career. It is this career of our 
Race, which should surely interest us rather more 
deeply than, I fear, it does. We are apt to look 
upon our human history from a too provincial or 
narrow viewpoint. If angels desire to watch us, 
it must be that there is a greater plan to which we 
belong than many of us realize. 

And very many thinkers of this age, 

Aye, many Christian teachers, half in heaven, 

Are wrong in just my sense, who understood 

Our natural world too insularly, as if 

No spiritual counterpart completed it 

Consummating its meaning, rounding all 

To justice and perfection, line by line. 

Form by form, nothing single or alone. 

The great below clenched by the great above. ^ 

We may presume that nearly all people, either 
civilized or not. Christian or pagan, Moslem or of 
any oriental religion, have at least a vague belief 

' Aurora Leigh. 



The Royal Law 13 

in that which we speak of as a future spiritual 
stage; and also that spiritual beings have existed 
before our earth was. Granted that this does lie in 
the background of all our cults; do any of us as 
bodies of believers, live with the active conscious- 
ness constantly in the foreground of our mutual 
activities, that we live and move and have our 
being in close union with the very pulse of this 
great Super-Lawgiver, and are in contact with, and 
perhaps under the sympathizing care of, this same 
angelic company that was so interested in our 
scheme of life ? It does not require very profound 
introspection to notice that our minds seem to be 
constantly fed from a source outside the usual 
avenues of information. Whence come the im- 
pulses of our minds? From whence comes that 
which we too often consider to be the result of our 
own unaided mental activity? Is there actual 
spontaneity of thought in the human brain ? Can 
a steady and rapid flow of digested thought gener- 
ate and poi;r forth faster than the quickest hand 
can write it, from a brain which a few moments 
previous seemed to be almost a vacuum? Whence 
this inflow ? Whence comes our impulse to do this 
or that when our brain had reasoned it out to be 
otherwise ? Oh, we are in the midst of a mental or 
spiritual kingdom in which we are sustained in 
some way which we may not yet be granted know- 
ledge of. We feel sure that we are mentally im- 
pressed from without both for good and ill and 



14 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

that we also receive directive and thought-produ- 
cing impulses. Are we of those whom our Saviour 
termed "little ones," whose angels do always be- 
hold the face of the Father who is in Heaven? 
Do these ministering angels instruct us ''ever so 
gently," if we will but hear them? Then should 
we not always obey our holiest impulses and resist 
those which are selfish? Shall we be inspired by 
angels of God or influenced by demons of destruc- 
tion ? Is it not better to learn to receive into our 
spiritual nature those life-giving breathings than 
to court the miasmic vapourings of destruction? 
Shall our impetus of belief and conduct proceed 
from Christ or Satan ? We may choose our source 
of thought food ; but having chosen we must obey. 
Every day we are called upon to choose whom we 
will listen to and to whom we will give our alle- 
giance. We cannot choose both God and Mammon, 
but only the one. In this choice between Christ 
and Satan lies the disciplinary work of the soul 
through the human will. The morq we consider 
the teaching of the Only Begotten Son of our Law- 
giver, the more we may realize the utter wisdom of 
every saying that fell from His perfect lips. If He 
became perfected by the things which He suffered, 
He has thus shown us that the Disciplinary Law 
of our being must be absolutely obeyed by us, even 
as He obeyed it. He said, "For I am come down 
from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will 
of Him that sent me." Again, He said, "Every 



The Royal Law 15 

one that hath heard from the Father and hath 
learned, cometh unto me. " The perfection of His 
living was the result of obedience to the Royal 
Law. He loved the great kindly Author of his 
being so greatly that His perfect soul turned ever 
upwards, even in His most intense suffering, and 
said, **Abba, Father, not what I will, but what 
Thou wilt." He knew that in the process of 
which he was a part, a mystically wonderful part, 
this cup must be drained. He had learned to 
abide in the heart of the Infinite, and to remain 
in absolute obedience to the plans of the Great 
Designer, until there was a oneness between them. 
No shade of rebellion lay between Him and the 
regal mind of the Infinite. Thus the Royal Law 
became to Him a Band of Love that bound Him 
unreservedly to His beloved Father, and caused 
Him to stretch out His arms in loving tenderness to 
those about Him, begging them to take upon them- 
selves this burden of love, the bands of the Law, 
which He taught was an easier yoke for His fellow 
human souls to bear than the yoke of a sinful life. 
I take it, that the mission of Christ was, to save the 
people from their sins; and our mission is to learn 
of Him. It does not detract from the simplicity 
of His mission that the Father submitted the Son 
to the suffering of the Cross or to the glory of the 
Ascension to the seat of power at His right hand; 
as it is taught us that it was all brought about for 
the sake of our pardon and the ultimate renewing 



i6 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

of our souls unto righteousness through the suffer- 
ings and ultimate reigning of our Saviour. 

Christ Jesus taught no doctrines other than love 
and obedience to the Father, and love towards 
each other. This is marvellously simple and scien- 
tific, and if obeyed brings about the highest results 
possible to the soul of a man, viz., the sinless life, 
the life that assures us of continuity of being, in 
some expression of entity and in some condition 
of environment; but it must be in conscious and 
acknowledged unity with our Redeemer. If we 
abide by this Law of Life we are immortal. The 
soul that sins shall die. Sin is disobedience to the 
Law, and is brought about by our own unwilling- 
ness to love and serve God and to love each other. 
These two Loves, our Saviour taught us, embodied 
all the Law and the teachings of the prophets. 

As we have previously reminded ourselves, the 
angels desired to watch our career as a race, and 
we find it scriptural to assume that they have been, 
and still are, watching the results of our particular 
scheme of being. 

We are taught by Scripture that our first parents 
were at the beginning goody because obedient; then 
that they fell from this obedient goodness to a 
state of disobedient, and so sinful, condition. We 
term this event the Fall of Man. Adam and Eve 
bequeathed to us this unholy tendency, along with 
some goodness. Through Cain we have received 
a sadly sinful tendency towards jealousy, hatred, 



The Royal Law 17 

and murder; fortunately for us, Seth has preserved 
and bequeathed to us some of our first parents' 
personal goodness and wisdom, or ours would have 
been an evil race indeed. Had there been no law 
at the beginning, our first parents or Cain had had 
no sin; but there seems to have been no recorded 
system of Law at this early era. Perhaps this 
twofold love was their only creed. As time passed, 
the descendants of Adam and Eve became very 
wicked. Few there were who essayed to keep 
these two commandments. Enoch had walked 
with God in obedient union, and God had taken 
him away ; but he left no fixed code that we know 
of. We know that he exhorted and warned, but 
to little purpose, we conclude ; as it was a very few 
souls who were saved from the great flood, a little 
later on, through their belief in the warnings which 
came from God. As more time passed we find God 
singling out one obedient man, perhaps the only 
obedient one, from the mass of peoples, to begin 
a nobler genus of souls, to whom great things were 
promised. Yet in all this story we do not learn 
just what was the command of God to the Race; 
but that there was a Law we know because Abra- 
ham had learned to be obedient to God, or he had 
not risen to the occasion, when he was commanded 
to set out for a new country, and leave the house 
of his father, and all the comforts of a fixed home. 
He believed in God's words of promise to him, and 
he obeyed His command. But still we find no 



i8 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

fixed Law. Not many centuries pass before we 
find that the children of this great man have be- 
come a vast multitude; but through strange cir- 
cumstances they had become a people in bondage 
and were suffering grievously. In the midst of this 
unbearable slavery, God spoke to them in com- 
mand, that they must leave this state of bondage, 
and go forth to where He should lead them, and 
that they should become a great and free nation. 
We may follow them through the divided waters 
right into the wilderness which was to be their 
wandering pathway home. All down these cen- 
turies from Adam's natal morn until the victory 
and tragedy of the Red Sea, on, until we touch 
Sinai, we find no code of Law. True we find 
wickedness and sin, obedience and faith, all of 
which presupposes commands broken and obeyed ; 
but no set of rules do we find formulated for general 
use. Still, this people knew both by natural in- 
stinct and divine instruction from time to time, 
that wickedness was, first, want of faith in the One 
God, in some way which they understood, and 
second, that hate and injurious action towards 
one's fellow-being was sin. This we find that even 
Cain knew. After a period of wanderings in the 
wilderness these chosen people arrived at Mount 
Sinai, there to receive from God through their 
leader, Moses, The Royal Law. Not only did 
they receive the Ten Commandments, as we 
reverently term them, but there was also afterward 



The Royal Law 19 

set up in their midst with great exactness, a code 
of ethical ordinances which shame our Christian 
civilization. True, some of these applied par- 
ticularly to their day, and, perhaps, not to ours so 
well. But if we lived up to so rigorous a set of moral 
regulations as these, only more suitable for our 
day, how our sinful habits would disappear before 
their cleansing influence. But we have no excuse, 
because all sub-laws are founded on the two main 
words which issued from the mouth of Jehovah 
that eventful day, amid the muttering of thunder 
and the flashes of the lightnings of the heavens on 
Sinai. Many, many centuries have passed since 
then and many prophets have arisen, many genera- 
tions have come and gone, and these people be- 
came the great and free nation that had been the 
hope of Abraham ; some few of them still living up 
to this high moral standard to the best of their 
ability. Alas ! we also know that the mass of them 
were not obedient. Alas! we know that as a na- 
tion Israel drifted into the most suicidal falling 
away that history presents us with. We stand 
in amazement to see her afliliate with paganism, 
forgetting alike the victories of the Red Sea and 
the Jordan, and the Voice from Sinai. These 
people had received so much direct visitation from 
Jehovah by the prophets, by angels, and by the 
direct guidance of Jehovah in their sanctuary 
through the shekinah, that we marvel that they 
fell. When the Redeemer came to them as was 



20 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

foretold, the residue, who thought themselves 
strict Jews and quite unmixed with any pagan 
religion, He found to be very faulty indeed. 
He found them very religious, and their time and 
attention quite fully occupied with Temple service 
and the many obligations in connexion therewith. 
They had accumulated such a debris of tradition 
and petty laws and customs around the real Law 
which Moses wrote direct from the mouth of Jeho- 
vah, that it was wellnigh hidden from view. He 
called their leaders hypocrites, and said that they 
were a generation of vipers, and He told them 
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of 
your father it is your will to do. " John the Bap- 
tist had begged of them to repent, telling them that 
the Kingdom of God was at hand. Christ Jesus 
came telling them that it had come and claiming 
that He was able to- restore them to their primal 
purity. The trouble was that Christ Jesus wanted 
to restore them by the law of Moses, that was the 
only law that He recognized as essential; and He 
with His clearness of perception saw that the whole 
law was entirely covered by the two duties, the 
one towards their Father God, the other towards 
their brother man. These men loved and obeyed 
their ritual and considered their own selves first, 
rather than ''In honour preferring one another." 
He told the listening multitude that He did not 
come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to 
fulfil them. We do not know how early in His 



The Royal Law 21 

life He came to know Himself as the promised 
Messiah ; we are not told. But from His conversa- 
tion with the teachers, we would draw that His 
mind was attuned to His mission from early child- 
hood, and at least after His baptism He realized 
that He was indeed the Son of Man and of God 
Who should redeem the world. When He preached 
to, or reasoned with, these arrogant scribes and 
Pharisees, He pinned them fast to their own belief 
in their Scriptures and Law, which teaching was 
all embodied in the two commands He gave. For 
this they bitterly hated Him. 

And if He walked about amongst us to-day 
would He have a much more kindly reception, 
think you? Do we wish that He would come and 
try to purify our religious life? Well, perhaps if 
He would confine Himself to doctrinal subjects we 
might welcome Him, but I doubt it, as I judge by 
His previous words that much of our sectional 
differences would meet with a swift judgment. 
Then again, would He confine Himself to criticism 
of the Sunday service alone, and to the intricacies 
of orthodoxy and heterodoxy? 

We say we must stand amazed at the suicidal 
falling away of these typical people, the Jews who 
held as their state belief, a typical religion. What- 
ever we see befall the type, we shall expect to see 
befall the antitype, shall we not? Without doubt, 
we take the great Christian Religion as antitype 
of the Jewish. Once more we are obliged to stand 



22 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

amazed, when we see the antitype of Judaism, 
Christianity, to-day, in all her degradation of cor- 
ruption and falling away; for surely all will admit, 
that as a whole we are wofully corrupt in practice 
as were those of the type. Look carefully into 
our commercial and social life and see if this is an 
unjust accusation, or if we can affirm that as yet 
the kingdom of God is set up among us in such 
security that we actually obey its dictum. As 
Moses was the leader of the Chosen People out of 
the land of bondage into the promised land of 
freedom and plenty, so is Christ the Antitype, the 
Leader of the whole race of mankind out from the 
bondage of the sinful life into the promised land 
of holiness and into the paths of obedient love to 
God and helpful love towards each other. The 
new dispensation was meant to be as much grander, 
kindlier, larger than the old one, as Christ was and 
is grander in personal holiness, kindlier in affec- 
tionate care over us, larger in the wideness of His 
redeeming scheme, than was Moses the leader and 
lawgiver of the Jews. Christ's reign includes in 
its full scheme, our creation, our fall, the promise 
of our final redemption, The Law of Moses, the 
warnings of the prophets, the Church during its 
period of experience and trial, our present day with 
its troubled hopes of a glorified earth and our hope 
of an eternal home for weary souls. Now that we 
are nearing the redemption of the poor sin-sick 
earth, it is more nearly possible for us to obtain a 



The Royal Law 23 

conception of the whole scheme. It is, before all 
things, our present duty to endeavour to fit our- 
selves for this redeeming epoch of our history as a 
Race. We must allow the Spirit of Truth to re- 
instruct us so that we shall each become one of 
that blissful company that not only know the law, 
but gladly obey it. How useless for us to rebel 
in this final triumph of good over ill, of obedience 
to the law over disobedience to it. It would be as 
practical for one water-drop to endeavour to 
strive against the great tide, as for one of us to 
oppose the incoming redemptive tide of the plan 
of salvation for us, the plan of which angels of 
Heaven desire to take note. 

Always when I try to measure the possible profit 
that may result from the sinful life I hear singing 
in my ears, throbbing in my very soul, influencing 
what small reasoning powers I may have, the say- 
ing of the Master Law-Giver of the Universe, 
** Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of the 
Father so also the soul of the son is mine. The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." I feel this to be 
inexorably true, and righteous. If after we have 
become a disobedient and thus sinful people, we 
are subject to death of both body and soul; it must 
be that by repentance, followed by obedience to 
the Royal Law, we obtain the gift of at least long 
life here, and everlasting life hereafter. Already in 
our efforts to attain a higher moral and sanitary 
condition we have secured a little larger percentage 



24 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

of those who arrive at the century mark. Perhaps 
we shall soon learn to live so wisely that we shall 
not sin against the laws of the physical body. 
Death now comes to saint and sinner alike; as all 
have to submit to the general conditions under 
which we in our ignorance, and sometimes in our 
self-indulgence, exist to-day. Not so with the 
death of our souls, as we are each one of us person- 
ally responsible for the state of our own soul, 
independent of all influence or environment. We, 
as believers, know that as in Adam all die, so in 
Christ shall all he made alive. It is the privilege of 
each to accept of this Life in Christ at the earliest 
moment that our consciousness can conceive of it. 
We may see this life in Christ each a little differ- 
ently, as we see the landscape, but we must each 
of us accept of this gift, each with his own con- 
sciousness, and from his own conception of that 
which he finds written in God's Word to us. And 
as our viewpoints are many and varied, though all 
drawn from the one source, we should try to under- 
stand somewhat better the method of this Salva- 
tion which we are all heirs to ; that is, we are heirs to 
it if we are willing to fulfil the required conditions, 
viz., Allegiance to our Risen Redeemer, and sin- 
lessness. Then we may with reason ask, ''Why is 
it that in Christ we shall be made alive? " I think 
we may take the view from God's Word, that for 
some purpose, perhaps quite outside our concep- 
tion, we were allowed to become a very sin-dis- 



The Royal Law 25 

eased race ; and that after a long period we were to 
be rescued from this horrible loathsome condition ; 
but not until we had made full trial of being allowed 
to use our volition freely, either towards good or 
ill ; and we have used it more for ill than good. 

We have as a race been most disobedient, 
although there have always been the few who have 
striven valiantly against wrong and have tried 
earnestly to keep the Royal Law. These few have 
always been working for the reign of righteousness 
upon the earth and in the hearts of men, more than 
from a selfish standpoint of personal salvation. 
These have known that we should eventually be 
cleansed from all this sin-sickness, by one of our- 
selves, who had never been sin-sick because He was 
always obedient. In His perfect Manhood He did 
not escape the temptations of the flesh, but He 
withstood them, and became perfected by the 
things which He thus suffered. He was fore- 
ordained for these sufferings, and to bear our 
sorrows as well as His own. He did not shrink 
from the shame of the Cross, which was to those 
who slew Him a proof of the absolute defeat of 
One who had claimed that He was indeed the 
Messiah; but He despised this shame which only 
lifted Him to His Throne and Power and Glory. 
After His baptism, and temptation by the arch- 
enemy of our souls, He began to prepare the people 
about Him for the reception of His cleansing power. 
He knew that He, in unity with the Father, must 



26 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

bring the people once more into a state wherein 
it would be possible for them to continue to live. 
Some of us in our arrogance of mind think that we 
may become morally pure and justly kind towards 
each other, and that we may strive to instil the 
same aim into other minds, and so, we shall thus 
become perfect towards the Royal Law; and all 
this outside of Christ's efficacy. But this morality 
is not our full duty, and even if it were sufficient 
for cleansing, it still is not lifegiving to the soul; 
for in the scheme of redemption which the Super- 
Lawgiver planned out. He has so arranged it that 
Jesus our Christ, or our Messiah, is also High 
Priest and stands between us and pardon, and is 
our present King, and it is high treason to the 
Father not to recognize Him as our Saviour. In 
our earthly kingdoms we may not ignore or work 
against the majesty of the law and authority of 
our rulers with impunity, nor may we usurp the 
throne or reign jointly with our earthly sovereign, 
though we be law-abiding citizens ; neither can we 
be rival Christs, though our morals be spotless. 
There is but one Christ, and He is such by the 
plan of the Father ; and He has fully substantiated 
His claim to the Christhood by His unblemished 
obedience to the known Law, by His power 
displayed amongst men when He came, and by the 
circumstance of His coming according to prophecy, 
by the offering of Himself for our sins, and by the 
fully testified facts of His resurrection and ascen- 



The Royal Law 27 

sion. Perhaps to the modem mind, most of all 
does He substantiate the claim to this high office 
as He may be observed in the passing events of the 
present pregnant period. As we note the sad 
history of His real Church, the few, who for 
nearly two thousand years of sorrow and oppres- 
sion have followed the Lamb whithersoever 
He went, we may observe Him as the Man of 
Sorrows; with joy we may now also note the slow 
but steady and sure rising of His invisible but all- 
powerful Presence, passing all the nations and 
peoples of the world under His Judgment. Men 
in sympathetic sorrow have lifted Him up to their 
fellow-men and said. Behold the Man of Sorrows, 
was there ever Sorrow like unto His Sorrow ? But 
to-day we may look about us everywhere and we 
shall see, not so much the Man of Sorrows, as 
the Judge, the Husbandman. He is judging and 
separating the good from the evil. If we had the 
voice of the great winds and mighty rolling waters 
combined, we would cry to a poor sin-sick world 
to-day. Behold your Judge, your Saviour; and 
we may be assured that ''He is sifting out the 
hearts of men before His Judgment Seat " ; we had 
better be ready and willing to urge ourselves to 
**be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, 
my feet." 

Everywhere is there evidence of His presence. 
We may see Him everywhere in the spirit of re- 
organization which is now developing and working 



28 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

in our commercial, social and even in our religious 
systems. He is now leading us out from our bond- 
age of sin into the liberty of a sinless life. As 
Canaan was superior to the bondage and oppression 
of Egypt, so shall our new condition be happier for 
us; only far more so, for the Israelites continued 
to sin, and we shall have ceased to sin; that alone 
would bring heaven on earth. Conformity to our 
type would bring unspeakable joy of being, the 
joy akin to happy, healthy little children. We 
know that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Christ ever taught Spiritual Law from the 
analogy of natural objects, and we presume that we 
may do the same, or rather draw attention to His 
own method of learning about the spiritual from 
the natural ; and by endeavouring to find process in 
what we term ''Nature," we find that the whole 
Universe is moving under a law so vast and all- 
encompassing, that every minute atom is as im- 
portant as any gigantic part, be it so vast as the 
orbits in which the myriads of stellar travellers do 
obediently perform their duty of marching through 
God's infinite spaces; and we find also that ordi- 
nary objects with which we are quite familiar and 
which serve us as a useful environment, that these 
move as though they were law-abiding citizens of 
kingdoms particularly their own, and in each of 
these myriad kingdoms in what we term Nature, 
we find that the same Voice that has said in irre- 
vocable words, "The soul that sinneth, it shall 



The Royal Law 29 

die, " has said to each minute atom, cell, or system 
of systems, the unit of such which sinneth against 
its own law of being shall die, shall cease to be. 
The fruit tree which receives the blight of its 
peculiar disease, is useless, it must cease to be a 
cumberer of the ground. The seed which does not 
assimilate that for which it has organism and 
opportunity to incorporate into its being, is not 
good enough for the seedsman to reserve for future 
reproduction. The domestic animals which have 
contracted evil diseases or have succumbed to a 
tendency to degeneracy, are unfit for use, they 
must be cured or destroyed. Man willingly learns 
these lessons where worldly gain is at stake, and 
tries to profit by his experiences; under this same 
discriminating revision must all things pass, until 
the earth shall bloom like a rose. Into the mental 
region of man's experience must man himself turn 
this discriminating talent until the thought-world 
of our Race is revised and the wheat of good and 
wise thought is separated from the chaff of the 
evil and foolish, in the designs and aims of our 
peoples. We cannot have the spiritual first, the 
earthly must first be dealt with. To do all manner 
of iniquities on earth and at the same time have a 
hope of eternal life is absurd, unscientific and cer- 
tainly not scriptural. Our works shall be the test 
of our belief in the Mission of the Redeemer. Nor 
can we do works meet for the kingdom without 
repentance over our past sinning, and belief in, and 



30 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

allegiance to, our appointed King, Jesus the 
Christ. We cannot work as separate units in this 
great process of the Royal Law ; we are obliged to 
take our commands and instructions from our 
Super-Lawgiver's One perfected Son. In Him 
alone are we granted the privilege of the continued 
life ; as works without faith are void of life-giving 
power, so also is faith void without obedient ser- 
vice. It is worse than void, it is injurious. Igno- 
rant breaking of the Law is not without excuse; 
but to know the Law, and acknowledge Christ 
Jesus as our King, and yet not be willing to obey 
His commands, is quite without pardon while it so 
continues and induces death to the soul. ''Be 
not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that 
soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap 
corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit 
shall of the Spirit reap eternal life." 

Are we ever in our shortsighted foolishness 
tempted to blame our Creator for the suffering that 
the plan of our career has entailed ? Perhaps most 
of us do at times feel it to be unnecessarily weari- 
some and sin-sick in its workings. Do we not 
shrink from the struggle of the process although we 
know and see it to be a law which we may observe 
in all nature? Do we know what is contained in 
our Creator's full purpose concerning us? Can we 
not bring ourselves to believe, that in keeping with 
His beautiful works in nature, we shall be com- 



The Royal Law 31 

pensated for all our woes, if we be but faithful even 
unto death. We should believe that for those who 
obey the Royal Law, and strive after conformity 
to our living Head, there are laid up unspeakable 
joys, joys which we at present can scarcely imagine. 
Is it wise to find fault with the Infinite? Had 
we not better address our earnest inquiry to the 
Lord of our lives, thus, "What wilt Thou have us 
to do?" had we not better surrender our future to 
Him, and ask of the Father that we may become 
one with Christ, even as Christ is one with Him, 
and thus give ourselves the opportunity that our 
spiritual organism is capable of receiving, viz., 
Eternal Life in our Redeemer ? May we not wisely 
leam of nature, that each of us is an important 
unit of Christ's Kingdom, and that we are, as units, 
responsible for the excellence of that dear Home 
towards which all our souls aspire, the Kingdom of 
God, the Holy City, wherein no evil dwelleth, 
where all moves in a harmonious rhythm in perfect 
obedience to that process of which we know so 
little, the Royal Law? 

That each may fill the circle marked by Heaven, 

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 

A hero perish, or a sparrow fall. 

Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, 

And now a bubble bursts, and now a world. 

Go, wiser thou; and, in thy scale of sense, 
Weigh thy opinion against Providence: 
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such, 
Say, here he gives too little, there too much; 



32 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

Destroy all creatures for thy sport or lust, 
Yet cry, "If man's unhappy, God's unjust; 
If man alone engross not Heaven's high care. 
Alone made perfect here, immortal there. 
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, 
Rejudge His Justice, be the God of God." 



Pope. 



CHAPTER II 

FACE TO FACE IN THE MOUNT 

"Jehovah spake with you face to face in the Mount out of 
the midst of the fire (I stood between Jehovah and you at that 
time, to show you the word of Jehovah: for ye were afraid because 
of the fire, and went not up into the Mount)." 

Deut. v. 4, 5. 

"And this is the Judgment, that the light is come into the 
world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their 
works were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the Ught, 
and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved." 

John iii. 19, 20. 

"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render 
to each man according as his work is." 

Rev. xxii. 12. 

IT has been said that the scriptural account of 
the creation of our planet and its process of 
development towards fitness for a habitation of a 
human race such as ours, is merely a figurative 
sketch. It has also been said that this account is 
nothing more than an inscription of a tradition, a 
sort of folk-lore of primeval peoples. I do not see 
why it should not be a tradition, a figurative 
sketch, and also at the same time God's invincible 
truth ; if we did but read into it all of that which 
was designedly omitted, and if we do but reconsider 
3 33 



34 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

it from the standpoint of newer advances reached 
in that search after knowledge which we term 
Science. As regards a tradition existing, it is 
almost inconceivable that there should be no such 
tradition current in our young race at that early 
era when inscribing, by some method, became 
common. This field is apart from the design of 
our theme excepting to agree that there might well 
be such oral story transmitted by men to the dawn 
of written history. As regards it being God's 
truth which is so inscribed by our forefathers we, as 
believers in our Sacred Scriptures, do not doubt 
but that it reveals at least a part of the real process 
of Creation. Nor in this work does it fall to our 
poor efforts to defend the truth of God's Word. 
But if the account be indeed Truth, can it not also 
be a sketch illustrative of our progress and destiny 
as a human race? On this point we would dwell 
for a short while until we discover if there be any 
foundation for this view of our story of Creation. 
We find that, first, God created the Earth, then 
He allowed it to remain waste and void and left 
its great waters in darkness. But, we find, He left 
His Spirit brooding upon the face of these vast 
depths. After a while, in God's providence, it be- 
came time for a great development in the matter 
of the Earth, and the brooding Spirit of God pro- 
duced light; then He divided the light from the 
darkness, and called the light Day, and the dark- 
ness He called Night, There was Evening which 



Face to Face in the Mount 35 

began the Night, and there was Morning which 
began the Day, and the period of darkness and the 
period of Hght, together constituted one Day. 
Next came the division of the Waters into seas by 
raising up great expanses of land. The Land was 
in time to become a fitting abiding place for a race 
of human beings as well as for inferior living crea- 
tures. These expanses of land were to be clothed 
in verdant beauty ; and were to bring forth fruit, 
grain and flowers, for the sustenance and joy of that 
part of His handiwork which we are told was made 
in His own image, and there was to be food in 
plenty for all the inferior animals and they were to 
be under the rule of mankind; and after all this 
was accomplished, God saw that it was all very 
good; and thus were we projected into the angel- 
guarded process of The Eternal. There was also 
given us a possibility, which we have no right to 
believe obtains in other created life, viz.: the 
possibility of the continuity of existence, in some 
state of being, because we were formed after the 
Immortal Image. 

If we choose to see this all too brief account of 
the creative process of the earth as illustrative of 
the spiritual creative process of mankind, we shall 
quite readily perceive an analogy in the earth's 
first condition — it being without form and void 
and enveloped in thick darkness — and the spiritual 
waste, voidness and darkness which enshrouded our 
early days as a race of spiritual beings, and which 



36 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

still hangs heavily over us in parted clouds. Our 
first parents involved us in this far-shadowing 
gloom; but we must admit that God the Creator 
saw fit that it should be so. If we rebel at this 
thought we should remind ourselves that He Him- 
self said, ''I form the light and create darkness; 
I make peace and create evil ; I am Jehovah that 
doeth all these things." In anticipation of this 
rebellious feeling in our hearts, He has forewarned 
us thus, ''Woe unto him that striveth with his 
Maker; shall the clay say to him that fashioneth 
it. What makest thou?" So we find that in our 
early spiritual history we were in a state of waste, 
were void, were in spiritual darkness ; and still the 
clouds hang heavily over our souls. We must 
believe in the spiritual realm as in the physical, 
that it was the Infinite's will that it should be 
thus. 

But we also find that as in Mother Earth the 
Spirit of God brooded over Matter, so also has 
the Spirit of God brooded over the souls of mankind. 
At length, as God gave light to the darkened 
Mother Earth, so also did He give some light to the 
souls of men. He separated light from darkness, or 
good from evil, to some degree, in the hearts of 
men ; and as men received this spiritual light and 
obeyed or disregarded it, did they obey or dis- 
regard the Royal Law. As we know, we are 
judged. The blind are not expected to search for 
the hidden treasure ; nor are we always able to see 



Face to Face in the Mount 37 

the vision of glory that shines clear and bright 
behind the clouds that hide the light from us. 

It is said that the night and the day together 
made one complete day. Thus the strange and 
most disheartening experience of the darkness 
comes to us first. Afterwards shall the glorious 
day fully arrive, which has already cast its rosy 
morning rays over our spiritual world, to dispel the 
gloomy clouds of our night of sinning and to usher 
in an eternal radiant joyous day; a day that shall 
be to the darkness of our sinful state, as ideal a 
contrast as were the verdure and flowers, fruits and 
joys, of the typical Eden to the chaos of night 
which preceded its day. 

It is said that Enoch walked with God. His 
was a very early experience in our history. We 
must conclude that his obedience to that which he 
knew to be God's law, or teaching, brought Enoch 
so much spiritual light, that he not only walked 
with God by its illuminating influence, but he was 
able thereby to teach his early fellow-travellers on 
earth. But we also conclude that his teaching, for 
the most part, fell on barren ground and produced 
little lasting good. People generally were not 
enlightened enough to receive its beneficial rays. 
We may presume that time had not matured God's 
plans sufficiently for the good seed to take root 
and grow and ripen. 

After some more generations had passed away, 
God chose another man to walk in the light of 



38 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

the obedient life. Abraham came forth from un- 
der the clouds and darkness of spiritual obscurity, 
to walk in the light of faith in the Maker of men's 
bodies, and that, as yet, the greatest of known 
wonders, men's souls. Enoch's life seems to us as 
a bright star shining down on us from the dimly 
lighted ages long passed away; but Abraham's 
call to the separate and obedient life of faith was 
the apex, shall we say, of an ever widening ray. 
At times amongst his children the ray grew very 
dim and they fell into spiritual semi-darkness. 
But after God has once said, ''Let there be light, " 
then never again shall total darkness reign. So, in 
due time He sends a Moses, and from this Law- 
giver the widening ray spreads brilliantly over the 
chosen people of God, the children of the obedient 
Chaldean. Success and pride led these, too securely 
dwelling, people into carelessness and diplomatic 
affiliation with the worshippers of the various 
creations of God, instead of Himself. Again and 
again do the dark clouds almost close over this 
typical people. But always God remembered that 
He had said, "Let there be light," and behold 
a prophet would arise amongst them to offer 
the warnings of Jehovah in no uncertain man- 
ner. These prophets seem to form a wondrous 
chain of jewels, perhaps of lesser brilliancy than 
Moses, but in the infinitely kind provision of 
our Preserver, serving well to link the Law of 
God as given from Sinai, to that which issued 



Face to Face in the Mount 39 

from the perfect lips of the Redeemer of our 
souls. 

His was the final and the eternal teaching of the 
Royal Law of God to His chief creation, Man, 
who was made in the Royal Image; God duly 
sent forth His one perfected Son to radiate spiritual 
light. We are told that ''In Him was life and the 
life was the light of men. And the light shineth 
in the darkness and the darkness apprehended it 
not." And His blessed light still shines and is ever 
increasing in its radiating, pervading, and pene- 
trating qualities, over this still cloud-bedarkened 
earth. But the radiated glory of the light of the 
Kingdom of Christ on Earth is drawing near to 
its full completion in the final redemption of our 
people from sin, disease and sorrow and all spiritual 
darkness. 

We may already see the light of hope creeping 
into the by-ways and hovels of the downtrodden 
portion of our Race. We already see the hated 
searchlight of truth turned relentlessly on our 
national customs and laws. We see it turned, 
without even the appearance of a false mercy, on 
the enslaving and unbrotherly systems, commercial, 
political, and even religious, which too largely 
prevail in our midst to-day. Surely the true and 
unmeasured sunlight of the Sun of Righteousness 
shall soon cover our physical, mental, and spiritual 
plane. Then shall we, by its warming and pre- 
serving qualities, be made fitting soil for the 



40 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

plentiful harvest of the fruits, grains, and joy- 
giving flowers of the kingdom of Heaven, The 
Garden of God, in which we shall enjoy the pristine 
innocence of sin of the early hours of our first 
parents ; but in our costly experience of knowledge 
of the Law of God, we shall not share their lia- 
bility to rebellious sinning. When this much of 
our process of being is consummated we shall 
rejoice to echo the Glorious Creator's pronounce- 
ment and cry with one voice, It is indeed good. 

Much has been taught us concerning analogous 
laws. We are taught to draw conclusions about 
that of which we cannot be assured by corre- 
sponding data in that of which we feel fairly 
certain ; yet we are often warned to be careful that 
we do not strain this law by comparing things 
which are not absolutely alike. But when we see 
abundant proof that a Law is universal, we are 
obliged to accept its application to anything which 
seems to come under its domain. 

I think few would care to deny that Chaos pre- 
cedes Order, that Darkness precedes Light. Then, 
by this law of analogy had the Scriptures been 
silent, we should expect that Evil would precede 
Good. And so the Scriptures teach us. Adam's 
original lack of sinfulness was not sterling goodness , 
but only untried ignorant simplicity. He fell 
easily from lack of developed powers of resistance. 
Man needed the experience of passing through 
long ages of temptation, fall, and recovery, before 



Face to Face in the Mount 41 

he became strong enough to receive and apply the 
light of God. Occasionally, all down the cen- 
turies, some few have attained this desirable 
status of soul. The reader of history, both sacred 
and secular, can readily pick out a chain of shining 
gems from his stored memory of such, who evi- 
dently acquired the power to receive and radiate 
much of the Divine Light ; but that we, as a united 
whole, have as yet acquired the sweet reasonable- 
ness of a law-enlightened and happy brotherhood, 
no sane person would contend. 

Then there arises the vision of a race of human 
souls, few of whom are even aspiring to live and 
walk in the radiant pathway, but are stumbling 
along in chaotic spiritual blindness, refusing to see 
the light that is streaming in upon us from all 
directions. This is the blindness of them that 
refuse to open their eyes in the vision of a re- 
deemed people. We may well cry, O Lord, open 
Thou our eyes. Then we might soon become a 
complete, and kindly just, brotherhood. Sons of 
Light, living up to our privilege of being princes 
royal, children of the King, younger brothers of 
Jesus Christ. 

It may well have been considered a dangerous 
doctrine to spread, that God delayed our perfec- 
tion designedly ; and it would be dangerous to-day 
were it not a belief little disputed amongst even 
merely nominal Christians, that Christ's Kingdom 
is ripening fast, nay is already increasing in our 



42 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

midst, that God's term of delay is consummated, 
and the time has now arrived in which we are 
obliged to choose whom we will serve. Time has 
removed the danger which may have lain in this 
belief. There is left us to-day, only one danger, 
which is, the rebellious sin of refusing to work in full 
self-sacrifice for the new Kingdom. This is our 
present and only danger. 

As Darkness precedes Light, so Evil precedes 
Good, in the heart of the individual man. We as 
human entities are, each one of us, at first, in a 
state of voidness and waste, or in a state of thought- 
less unspirituality. But the Spirit broods in 
motherly kindness over our unawakened con- 
sciousness. Now and again we are startled by the 
little rifts of Divine awakening, through which we 
receive the dawning light of the new life in Christ ; 
but mostly we close our darkened eyes and sleep on 
for another while. At length, a soul has so much 
strong light cast in upon it, that it is forced to rise 
with this call from the glad morning, or shrink 
back into the unconscious lassitude of unrequired 
and injurious slumber. But when the soul of a 
man becomes really awakened by the Light of the 
Divine Spirit, then does his greatest sinning or 
saving begin. He stands responsible for himself 
before his Judge. The time of ignorance God has 
overlooked, but nowhere shall you find that God 
overlooks conscious continued sin. To the repent- 
ant one, He says, "Go in peace, and sin no more,'' 



Face to Face in the Mount 43 

That our darkness was in God's wise purpose in 
some way useful, we are obliged to admit ; but we 
must also admit that the awakening of a soul to 
its conscious need of the cleansing power of right- 
eousness, is also in God's wise purpose. This is the 
call to a life of righteous service towards the 
redemptive awakening of the more degraded 
members of our race. As soon as a man's soul is 
filled, pervaded, and warmed by the Divine Sun 
of Righteousness, he begins to develop the fruits of 
the Spirit. This is the test of the awakening of the 
slumbering soul. By our fruits shall we be tested. 
When the verdure, flowers, fruits, and grains of 
Eden are seen blooming and ripening all over and 
through a man's mind and actions, and his whole 
being is filled with the desire and effort to assist his 
beloved Redeemer in awakening and caring for the 
children of the new Kingdom, you may feel pretty 
well assured that this soul is living in the light 
which has been separated from the darkness. 
This is our present day test. Alas, that we, many 
of us, choose to-day to continue in our gloom and 
night. The young day is upon us; shame on us, 
that we still sleep on in this self-imposed darkness 
when the spirit of the earth is weeping bitterly for 
her morning food. Our selfish thoughtlessness is 
reaching high Heaven. Those angels who desired 
to look into our plan of salvation must be filled 
with indignant wonder as they watch for our final 
denouement. They must wonder at our lack of 



44 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

joy because the morning has come. They must 
pity the helpless ones so intensely, and they 
must wonder at the shameful inaction of those 
who seem to be, at least partially, awake. We 
cannot hinder the incoming kingdom, but we can 
do ourselves and others great injustice by making 
the way as difficult for our Saviour as we in our 
puny inefficiency are permitted to. But how Christ 
and His assisting throng of angels, ministering 
spirits, and spirits of just men made perfect; 
who are all around and amongst us; how these 
must pity our foolish loss of opportunity. And 
this is our pitiable condition to-day. 

When we think on these things from this stand- 
point, we can readily understand Paul's words to 
the Hebrews, "Therefore let us also, seeing we are 
encompassed about with so great a cloud of wit- 
nesses, lay aside every encumbrance (or weight) 
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us 
run with patience (steadfastness) the race that is 
set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and 
perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy that was set 
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, 
and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne 
of God. For consider Him that hath endured such 
gainsaying against Himself, that ye wax not 
weary, fainting in your souls." After Paul has 
further warned these people as to their conduct and 
patience in the chastening which yieldeth the good 
fruits of righteousness, he continues to tell them 



Face to Face in the Mount 45 

that the Mount that they were approaching was 
not a palpable mountain, wreathed in flaming 
fire, darkness and tempest, such as that which 
Moses had dared to approach, in his burning zeal 
for the souls of the people; but, Paul continues, 
*'Ye are come to Mount Zion and unto the City 
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to 
an innumerable host of angels, to the general 
assembly and church of the firstborn who are 
enrolled in Heaven, and to God the Judge of all, 
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and 
to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to 
the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better 
things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not 
Him that speaketh." 

The people to whom Paul so addressed himself 
were the chosen people of God, the children of 
Abraham, the forerunners of our Christian Church. 
If any Scripture applies to us, surely this does. 
And so we stand to-day before this most judicial 
Mount of Jehovah, this most illustrious and august 
company. 

When Moses went up into Sinai he went abso- 
lutely alone. No other soul in all that people 
dared to face the unknown terrors of the awful 
place. Afterwards, he presented them with the 
first and only fixed code that has, so far, come 
direct from the mouth of God to us. Moses 
addressed the people at the second reading of 
the Law, thus, "Jehovah spake with you face to 



46 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire (I 
stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to 
show you the word of Jehovah : for ye were afraid 
because of the fire and went not up into the 
mount)." And so we may not be willing to face 
the fire and thunders of the Mount of Christ, 
His life, death, and His written law, but we are not 
at liberty to choose whether we will face it or not, 
for the Mount of judicial inquiry has already come 
to us. We are now, even this day, face to face 
with this Court in session. 

In this Court we are judged according to what we 
know to be true law. We are judged also from two 
standpoints: the one as regards each his own 
personal obedience to the Light of the World, as we 
have been able to receive His mission and teaching ; 
and the other regarding how we have endeavoured 
to radiate this light, which we have received, to 
others who are still in partial or complete darkness. 
If all are judged from their obedience to knowledge, 
some one may say, Then why give knowledge to 
another which may involve him in possible guilt? 
But we must remember that darkness is passing 
away, and it is our chief duty to assist others to 
prepare quickly for the approaching day. "Go 
ye into all the world and preach the good tidings 
to the whole creation" was the command of the 
ascending Saviour. So we shall find ourselves 
under grave indictment if we are failing to obey 
this command. But if we obey, we have the 



Face to Face in the Mount 47 

promise, ' ' Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto 
the consummation of the age." With us all the 
weary days, as long as this age lasts, He says. We 
face an indictment of one of the gravest crimes 
against our fellows; or, we obtain an assurance of 
the Royal Presence all the way, though it may be 
long and the struggle almost, but not quite, 
defeating. 

We are at the crucial point of the Judgment of 
the earth preparatory to its near approaching day ; 
and no soul will for long be able to remain in the 
darkness of spiritual ignorance, for all shall know 
the law from the least even unto the greatest, 
though we do foolishly miss our many blessed 
opportunities of helping in the new order of 
human history. Jehovah said, long ages ago, by 
one of His prophets, ''By myself have I sworn, 
the word has gone forth from my mouth in right- 
eousness and shall not return, that unto me every 
knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Only 
in Jehovah, it is said of me, is righteousness and 
strength; even to Him shall men come; and all 
they that were incensed against Him shall be put 
to shame." We shall be put to shame by the just 
Judge if we are angry at the turn affairs of the 
day are plainly taking ; but oh, what opportunity to 
win the ''Well done" of the King is ours to-day! 
To-day, every system, whether it be religious, 
commercial, social, political, or any other, is 
thrown into the crucible of the burning Mount of 



48 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

God ; that Mount where sit in judgment inexorable, 
perfect, cleansing, this glorious Court in session, 
which shall never rest until its purifying fires have 
cleansed the dross of sin and misery from this 
poor sin-sick world of ours. 

And the Kingdom of Heaven, we are taught, is 
in the hearts of men. If so this Court is now try- 
ing my heart and your heart as to our fitness for 
this Royal Abode. It is not a new ritual which is 
being lowered down to us from Heaven, but a state 
of heart wherein the Royal Law is supreme in the 
mind and conduct of every unit of the whole Race. 
This awful fact, when fully realized, brings each 
one of us, man, woman, or conscious child, face to 
face with the Lord Christ on the Mount. 

Paul urges the Philippians to be like-minded to 
Christ, and tells them ''Wherefore God highly 
exalted Him and gave unto Him the name which is 
above ever}'- name ; that in the name of Jesus every 
knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on 
earth and things under the earth (or of the world 
below), and that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father." He will judge us whether we bow to 
Him or not. We had better turn our attention 
towards promoting this obedience amongst men, 
for He left us very explicit directions for our pre- 
paration for the new regime, and this is that by 
which we are examined by this judicial assembly. 

When the people were receiving the great Law 



Face to Face in the Mount 49 

through Moses from Jehovah on Sinai, they 
utterly refused to go up with him and share in the 
honour which it was their privilege to partake of 
with their illustrious leader. Afterwards, they 
found themselves to be as much bound by its 
restrictions as though they had been brave enough 
to face the fire and tempest of the presence of 
Jehovah, and so it shall be with us. Though we 
may not willingly approach to the fires and raging 
tempests and dark storm clouds which the Lord 
Christ is now stirring up amidst all our habits and 
systems, spiritual, mental, and physical; still, we 
shall find ourselves to be absolutely enveloped in 
this revolutionary^ and progressive cleansing process. 
We may storm angrily at the Law and the fires 
of cleansing like disobedient young children — 
which we truly are — but the Law will still stand 
in God's invincible keeping, and the fires will 
continue to burn and cleanse until we be in truth 
children fitted by purity to live in a sane and 
obedient condition in the Holy City of Christ 
Jesus on Earth; and if called into a more spiritual 
state of being by that process which we call death, 
we shall find ourselves placed in that most honour- 
able of all positions before the throne of our Hero 
Sovereign receiving a well merited "Well done, 
thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler 
over many things." That means, I take it, that 
He will enlarge our sphere of usefulness. So if 



50 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

we be truly obedient to the Law and invite 
the fires of purification, we shall know, by the 
assurance of our God-given soul's approval, 
that to live in this world as we should, is Christ, 
and to die and have our usefulness extended is 
gain. 

We must, to attain to this assurance, give our- 
selves to the Godlike service of separating the 
wheat from the chaff, until all wrong has been 
consumed as chaff in the fires of this crucial day. 
The time of our ignorance God has overlooked, we 
are told, but now that we have received the know- 
ledge of the teaching of the Redeemer, we are com- 
manded each and every one of us to repent. We 
have been told that God has appointed a day in 
which He will judge us all in righteousness by the 
man whom He hath ordained; the divine Man 
whom we know as Jesus the Christ. Few, who are 
not thoughtless, or who are not too much bound up 
in dogmatic shroudings, will deny the probability 
that the judgment of the world is now taking place. 
If one be not much mixed up in social, commercial, 
or even religious affairs and yet awake to the 
various strange movements in all these, he will 
perceive, as in a panorama which moves steadily 
along, this process of Judgment sifting into the 
causes and effects which tend to keep sin and pain 
so much in evidence amid the nations, our own not 
excepted. We may well echo the stirring lines of 
that glorious American battle hymn — 



Face to Face in the Mount 51 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; 

He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are 

stored, 
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible quick sword. 
His truth is marching on. 

To say that the judgment is now in session, is only 
to draw attention to that which all may see, and do 
see, it may be quite unconsciously, just as we see 
the streets of a city through which we are passing, 
while our minds may be otherwise occupied; but 
which we can recall much of afterwards; and so if 
we call your attention to these passing events, we 
shall be but refreshing your memory, to aid you in 
realizing that we are indeed passing under the 
judgment of the Most High and of His Christ. 

We desire also to draw your thoughtful attention 
to an indication of the judgment being upon us, 
other than that of public movements, or, it may be 
in God's wise providence the cause or impetus of 
all public, national, or international, reforming 
movements; indeed on more careful analysis one 
must find it to be the real cause of all betterment of 
human conditions which is brought about by noble 
effort of men amongst men. The feature to which 
we refer is the evidence of an awakening amongst us 
of a critical attitude regarding the moral status of 
mind and conduct of our fellows by whom we are 
surrounded and with whom we mingle in a social, 
commercial, or religious way. It has taken me 
long years to see the true meaning of our Lord's 



52 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

teaching when He said, ''Judge not, that ye be not 
judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye 
shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, 
it shall be measured unto you." But these words 
grow strangely clear and scientific as one perceives 
that, as we receive the spiritual light which teaches 
us to discriminate between good and evil, between 
wisdom and foolishness, so do we judge our brother; 
and so are we forced to separate in our brother's 
character and conduct that which we see to be 
good, from that which we see to be evil, that which 
we conceive of as wise, from that which we consider 
to be foolish. Christ Himself so judged those 
whom He knew to be hypocrites, and publicly 
denounced them in strongly bitter vehemence. 
Then why did He warn us against doing the thing 
which He so frequently did Himself? If we note 
the next verse to the above-quoted words we shall 
see why He felt it His duty to do that which He 
warned us against doing. Christ continues thus, 
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy 
brother's eye? or how wilt thou say to thy brother, 
Let me take the mote out of thine eye ; and lo, the 
beam in thine own eye ? Thou hypocrite, cast out 
first the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt 
thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy 
brother's eye." We are not for long left in doubt 
about Christ's reason for thus differentiating 
between Himself and His hearers, after considering 
this latter quotation in its grammatical connexion 



Face to Face in the Mount 53 

with the first. We find our Master always con- 
sistent in His word and works ; so we look about us 
for His logical reason for doing a thing Himself 
which He warns us against doing. We find it 
plainly enough in one of His recorded conversations, 
thus, " I do always the things that are pleasing to 
Him (the Father)." He had full light, in fact 
was The Light of the World. He was perfect in 
His obedience to the Light which He carried; 
therefore He was in the unique position of having 
a right, and being perfectly able, to judge the 
minds and conduct of His weak and erring brothers, 
the other children of our Race. But how do we 
stand in this testing fire? We say that, as we 
become critical of the actions of others, so do 
we judge ourselves. This critical attitude forces 
us to look about us and see many persons doing 
things which are evidently extremely injurious 
to one or many of us. We desire to draw their 
attention to these iniquitous habits; and another 
in his critical zeal turns his searchlight on our 
poor petty, unchristlike state of mind and con- 
duct, and we are hushed into humble inactivity 
for a while, when perhaps again will our critical 
zeal towards our brother's shortcomings break 
forth; and it is a very weak and unfruitful effort 
which proceeds from us on account of our beam- 
beclouded eyes. 

Christ was and is so wisely scientific, we marvel 
that we do not mutually agree to obey Him. In 



54 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

this scientific age we are willing to adopt all other 
scientific schemes but that which He has so clearly 
laid down for the preservation of our souls. In 
His far-seeing wisdom He has admonished us for 
our own security to love one another. And so 
Paul urges us in all our reproof to one another to be 
gentle and to bear each other's burdens ; he says : 
** Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any 
trespass, ye who are spiritual restore such a one in 
a spirit of gentleness, looking to thyself lest thou 
also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens 
and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man 
thinketh himself to be something when he is 
nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let each man 
prove his own work, and then shall he have his 
glorying in regard of himself alone and not of his 
neighbour. For each man shall bear his own 
burden." We must each one of us bear his own 
burden of striving after perfection of faith and 
character, and at the same time we must bear 
each other's burdens in this same laudable and 
necessary striving ; and so shall we fulfil the law of 
Christ. Some one has taken exception (in a 
review of a former work) to the term. The Code of 
Christ, used hy us. We think that if we go care- 
fully into the recorded addresses of our Redeemer, 
we shall find ample material to select and formu- 
late into the most exacting Code of Laws that 
has ever been or can be presented to the human 
family. It is the only Code which, if obeyed, will 



Face to Face in the Mount 55 

give us the spiritual status of the Sons of God. It 
is the only Code which He Himself obeyed; and 
that without the shirking of one of its severe 
restrictions, or the lack of one iota of the spirit of 
measureless brotherly magnanimity which it 
enjoins. It is the Code which, the Court of the 
King is using in its present session of Judgment 
on our poor sin-sick world; and its children are 
being examined before this Court one by one, 
each standing alone, but an important unit of a 
whole people on trial for fitness for life. 

If we are really striving after the redemption of 
the poor old Earth from her chaos of disease and 
death, physical as well as spiritual, we shall study 
these laws more carefully than many of us have 
done, and doubtless our now too critical attitude 
will be changed into one helpful, energetic, self- 
sacrificing, humbly teaching and teachable, receiv- 
ing assistance and giving it, imtil we unitedly 
arrive at the state of spiritual cleanness and sane 
courage where we may consider the question, 
Dare we come up face to face on the Mount with 
Christ our valiant Leader? 

The Children of Israel could not bring them- 
selves to go up into the Mount and stand by their 
leader while he received the commands of Jehovah. 
Our Leader long ago urged us thus, ''Take my 
yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and 
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is 



56 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

light." Do we not believe that the burden of the 
obedient Christ-directed life is light, even after 
the Master has so sweetly assured us ? And right 
here lies a grave weakness which is a cause of so 
much of our spiritual inconsistency. We seem 
to believe that which appears to suit our condition, 
not sufficiently taking into consideration the 
fact, that our condition must be made by us 
such that it shall be possible to follow Christ's 
teaching, and to take His yoke of implicit faith and 
obedience upon us. 

His Law requires that we be perfect in our heart 
and conduct one towards another. Too much are 
our hearts shambles of murder, bitterness, envy- 
ings, and malice. If we are on trial by this Code, 
we shall be obliged to put ourselves at once into 
training for this civil war of the soul of man, and 
pray earnestly for the aid of the Spirit, the Com- 
forter, Whom Christ will send to assist us to keep 
this Law, so that we shall at last become the 
honoured sons of the blessed One, joint heirs 
with our Saviour. 

We have noted that the spirit of criticism, or of 
judging one another as to right and wrong conduct 
and mental attitude, is very prevalent amongst us. 
The ''Zeitgeist" no longer gives loud plaudits to 
brute force, but to the wisely scientific spirit of 
brotherly magnanimity. This alone mxust, we 
think, cause a ceaseless chorus of joyful Hallelu- 
jahs among the patient waiting angels of God, who 



Face to Face in the Mount 57 

have us in their keeping. May we not feel as- 
sured that this growing tendency to judge each 
other, is induced by the influence of this brooding 
Holy Spirit, this waiting, working Executive of 
the Redeemer, in its benign searchings within our 
souls to awaken us to our position of guilt or 
obedience, as we stand before this Royal Law. 
We pray God for a deeper awakening within our 
souls that we may receive more clearly and fully 
the Light of Truth ; and we feel a hopeful security, 
that soon this benign influence will arouse us still 
further until we who are believers in the atoning 
and reigning power of Jesus of Nazareth the Son 
of God shall throw off all old cumbering doubt in 
the verity of the present conquering Kingdom of 
Heaven; and be ready and willing to sacrifice 
anything which may impede our highest usefulness, 
and cry unitedly, as one voice, to our Redeemer, 
Lord, what wilt Thou have me do ? And when He 
grants us the privilege of doing some small, or 
greater, service towards this holy consummation of 
all things earthly, we shall as one man move each to 
His service, joyously, thankfully, and in glowing, 
but humble pride, to be co-workers with the 
Saviour of men in His now maturing operations. 

Hitherto we have bestowed much indignant 
criticism, or rather censure, upon the spiritual 
state of mind and the resulting conduct of our 
neighbour, to the blindfolding of our sight of our 
own individual state of mind and conduct. This 



58 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

error is to our serious hurt. But we are glad to 
know that it is becoming essential to true and 
respected citizenship amongst us, that we do not 
ourselves do those things which we condemn as being 
wrong in others. Not so long ago but that the 
shadow of this unholy method of judging is still 
upon us, interfering to a marked extent with just 
criticism to-day, there was considered to be a 
difference between certain sins if one person did 
them, and those same sins if another committed 
them. This difference arose (or arises), not from 
extenuating circumstances, but is quite opposite 
in its working, viz. : if a man were of high and 
powerful position, the sin were reckoned as less 
in guilt than if a man were poor and friendless. 
This is the Judgment which is controlled by the 
Spirit of darkness; it is strictly Satan's doctrine, 
as opposed to Christ's. Christ was ever the most 
pitiful to the weak and needy and those whom He 
considered to have had little spiritual privilege 
for soul ctilture. We see with joy that this error 
is also passing away. 

The world-spirit of to-day is looking with an 
exceedingly searching eye upon the spirit and 
conduct of the great and privileged ones of the 
Earth. The brooding Spirit of Light is inspiring 
the World-Spirit to demand that the saying of the 
Lord Christ be verified, that "To whomsoever 
much is given, of him much shall be required : and 
to whom they commit much, of him will they ask 



Face to Face in the Mount 59 

the more." That law is held to be true in all 
other processes of the universal order, why not in 
the career of a human soul? How could it be 
otherwise ? It follows that when we have sufficient 
spiritual insight to precisely judge our brother, we 
have at the same time and by the same exacting 
process judged ourselves. We are self -convicted, 
in so far as we are guilty. So, we find it to be 
logical, that each soul shall take for his criterion of 
mind and conduct the most exacting standard of 
wisdom and holiness with which he criticizes his 
brother. If we each perform this office faithfully 
on ourselves, we shall find ourselves approaching 
no peaceful Sinai. We shaU, I fear, many of us, 
approach fire and tempest which shall terrify our 
very souls. But this must come to each of us 
before the Holy One can set up the Kingdom of 
Heaven within the hearts of men. 

Jesus Christ in prophetic warning tells us thus : 
"And this is the judgment, that the light is come 
into the world and men loved the darkness rather 
than the light, for their works were evil. For 
every one that doeth evil hateth the light and 
cometh not to the light lest his works should be 
reproved." This facing the enlightened judgment 
of the World-Spirit is the secret of the cleansing 
process of our sin-sick and disease-stricken race 
to-day. Ye cannot serve at once the spirit of 
chaotic darkness and the Spirit of Light, *'We 
cannot serve God and Mammon." Mammon is 



6o If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

still largely the ruling power of commercial and 
social life; and may we not fear that he still has 
far too great influence in formal religious life? In 
national and international life? Mammon is 
usually at the basis of all complexities which 
give rise to quarrels. True, often questions 
of humane and brotherly interests are mixed into 
these disputes in degree of more or less. But if the 
Master sorts out all our actions, personal, national, 
or international, into but two classes, viz., those 
who serve God, and those who serve Mammon, we 
are obliged to do the same. If a people, to a man, 
stand up for the defence of a weaker nation, or of 
their own nation, that she may unmolested become 
a session of Judgment first on herself, and after- 
wards in her purity on others, is not that serving 
God? If a nation stand up to injure a weaker 
nation, or to defend herself that she may continue 
to carry on iniquities unmolested, is that not 
serving Mammon? Do we not see the nations 
thus groping about in the lifting darkness, and see 
that some are awakening slowly in the rosy dawn ? 
Perhaps almost unconsciously, but still beginning 
to gladly welcome the breaking of the new day. 
We have been warned about judging one another; 
so we feel it were safer for us to believe that all our 
nominally Christian states are in process of 
absorbing and reflecting the radiance from the 
Throne of God in more or less degree. Mistakes 
and narrow vision are the common experience of 



Face to Face in the Mount 6i 

man or State. Complexities arise which try men's 
brains and souls to solve. Sacrifices are at times 
demanded by the occasion which try men's con- 
sciences and souls. Great complexities demand 
great effort of mind and conscience. When we 
present ourselves before the Mount of God's Law 
in our Christian states, our sittings of parliament 
are sessions of grave issues. Do we not already 
see this in our own state, although we be not yet 
quite fully awakened to the presence of the search- 
ing light which is sending its penetrating morning 
rays into our highways and byways relentlessly? 

There are so many different subjects for the 
judgment of Christ to pronounce upon, that we 
should make all haste to obtain and try to under- 
stand His teaching on these various phases of our 
national or personal life. 

There can be no one subject more difficult or 
more prominent amongst the nations, great or 
small, than to decide on all occasions just how we 
should act and feel towards each other as though we 
really believe that we are all children of one 
common Father and all brothers of one Christ, 
Who shall redeem us. This subject involves 
most, if not all, of our great issues. If we run our 
mind's eye over the many nations and peoples 
of the earth, and compare our privileges with 
those of the vast majority of our brother human 
beings, we shall perhaps realize that we are not 
quite so Christlike in our qualities as we should be, 



62 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

to be in keeping with our unique spiritual and 
temporal privileges. Where much is given, much 
is required. We may, like Cain, cry back to High 
Heaven, "Am I my brother's keeper?" But that 
will exonerate us but little before Christ and His 
Assembly. When our Judge walked on the earth 
amongst men and taught His commands to the 
people, *'a certain lawyer stood up and made trial 
of Him saying. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit 
eternal life? And He said unto him. What is 
written in the Law, how readest thou? And he 
answering said. Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and 
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; 
and thy neighbour as thyself. And He said unto 
him, Thou hast answered right, this do and thou 
shalt live. But he, desiring to justify himself, 
said unto Jesus, Who is my neighbour?" Then 
Jesus told him in a parable, that he that showed 
mercy on the poor fellow human being who had 
been so shamefully ill-used by robbers, and just as 
shamefully neglected by the self-righteous priest 
and Levite, was acting as a true neighbour to the 
unfortunate man; and the man who needed his 
help became his neighbour because of his need. 
So we learn that our neighbours are those who help 
us, and those who need our help. This test of 
neighbourliness was the test of this man's soul as 
to its fitness for eternal life. It was Jesus' answer 
to the lawyer, it is His answer to us. 



Face to Face in the Mount 63 

Jesus, in warning some disciples of the things 
which should come to pass in the later day, bade 
them watch for the signs of His coming kingdom, 
and He adds the significant remark, "And what I 
say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." If our 
Redeemer's words of command and promise were 
for none but contemporaries, then our Faith is a 
misplaced delusion and fruitless Utopian dream. 
But we do believe that His Words were for us also, 
and we find that some were particularly for us 
only. So we had better watch human affairs 
closely. If we do so we shall see that the fig-tree is 
already putting forth its leaves. 

When we personally perceive that the trend of 
affairs is towards neighbourliness and brotherly 
kindliness and that all other is considered by 
general consent to belong to the old barbaric and 
cruel ages of our Race, that moment do we become 
a unit of responsibility in the developing Kingdom 
of Heaven. That moment do we arrive face to 
face on the Mount of kindness, mercy, and truth. 
The poor friendless, starving, disease-stricken, or 
oppressed peoples can become Children of the 
Holy City, while we more privileged ones must 
remain outside the open door, unfit to enter with 
them because we knew their need and ministered 
not unto them. We do strenuously claim that 
good hygienic conditions, good food, good oppor- 
tunity for mental culture, etc. , should give beauty 
of character and fitness for a more highly developed 



64 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

spiritual mentality; but we also know that these 
often fail to produce other than mere physical and 
mental betterment. But is not even this sort of 
betterment the right of all God's children equally ? 
Many of these benighted peoples, when given the 
light of the Gospel of Jesus, have shamed our 
civilization. These can enter into the fold of the 
kind Shepherd without us, but we cannot enter in 
without having helped them, both into the fold of 
Christ, and into their rights of comfort and cul- 
ture equally with ourselves. We are rewarded 
according to our work, punished according to our 
selfishness. Our work is examined by the watch- 
ing hosts in all its phases amongst men; our social, 
commercial, national, and international actions 
are all passing through the judgment of Christ 
and His Executive. 

Once in Christian history the question was 
asked, "What then shall I do unto Jesus Who is 
called Christ?" They (the people) all say. Let 
Him be crucified. Then said Pilate, Why, what 
evil hath He done? But now the people are on 
trial before this Crucified One for their lives. The 
chosen people were afraid to go up with Moses to 
obtain the Law: but Christ brought the Law 
down to us and forces us to face this Law and the 
fires which shall consume our selfish wickedness. 
What will He do with us if we do not desire to walk 
in His way ? 

Some very religious persons object to the 



Face to Face in the Mount 65 

doctrine that the Eternal Life of a soul is depend- 
ent on the quality of its works. We are much 
safer and saner to listen to the teaching of the 
Founder of our Faith. 

Granted that we believe in Christ as our Saviour 
from sin unto Eternal Life, and granted that we 
acknowledge that He alone is able to bring peace 
between ourselves and the Father ; what else, doth 
He teach us, is the Way but to love the Father 
supremely and our brother as ourselves? Christ 
loved His younger brothers better than Himself. 
That alone is the Christlike principle. He is 
constantly urging us to be pitiful to the weak, to 
restore the erring, to supply want, to remove 
oppression, and destroy pain and sin in our midst 
and lead all to Him by love. 

The words of warning and promise which were 
uttered by Him from out His seat of Power, have 
been ringing down the ages to a disobedient and 
rebellious people. Never more than to-day was 
this warning and promise more timely. He says, 
"Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with 
me, to render to each man according as his work is." 

May the Holy Spirit help us to conquer our 

evil, selfish, rebellious natures, as we approach the 

fires of purification of our people. 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; 

He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are 

stored. 
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible quick sword. 
His truth is marching on. 



66 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His Judgment Seat; 
O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet: 
Our God is marching on. 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was bom across the sea, 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. 
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on. 

Jidia Ward Howe. 



CHAPTER III 

THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS 

"And now, O Israel, hearken unto the statutes and unto 
the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that ye may 
live and go in and possess the land which Jehovah, the God 
of your fathers, giveth you. Ye shall not add imto the word 
which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye 
may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I 
command you, for this is your wisdom and your understanding 
in the sight of the peoples, that shall hear all these statutes and 
say, Surely this great nation is a wise and imderstanding people. 
For what nation is there that hath a God so nigh unto them 
as Jehovah our God is whensoever we call upon Him? And 
what great nation is there that hath statutes and ordinances so 
righteous as all this Law, which I set before you this day?" 

Deut. iv. I, 2, 6, 7, 8. 

"Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base 
before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but 
have had respect of persons in the law. Have we not all one 
Father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal 
treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the 
covenant of your fathers? " Mal. ii. 9, 10. 

"All things therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should 
do imto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law 
and the prophets." Matt. vii. 12. 

IT is a weird and mystical story which brings us 
some few mental pictures in the history of 
the "chosen" people of God. Chosen, perhaps, 

67 



68 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

more as an object lesson to humanity, than for 
their fidehty to the best they knew. True, we find 
Abraham, the progenitor of these children of pro- 
mise, to be a man of great faith in and obedience to 
Jehovah's teaching as he received it direct from 
Him. But taking these children of his as a whole, 
they can scarcely be considered by us as having 
lived in a spirit of true obedience to their light. 
We cannot but see it to be likely that they were 
chosen to fill out a plan of Jehovah's wherein their 
strange experiences might prove to be striking and 
illustrative lessons of warning to the generations 
that should follow; and unless we are prepared to 
take a wide and long view of God's wisdom in His 
works we shall probably be guilty of judging the 
Infinite and Eternal by our own pitifully narrow 
and short ideas of human things. If a few short 
years of some pleasure and gladness, mixed with 
much wearisome pain and sadness, were the end 
of all, then truly, we should have some excuse for 
feeling aggrieved that we had formed a part of 
this particular manifestation of the Infinite and 
Eternal Creator. But our vision widens when we 
remember that countless cycles of time have been 
flowing, ever flowing from some inconceivably 
remote, infinite source; that Eternity and Immor- 
tality are the assuring words of hope from the 
Infinite ; and that those words lead us to hope that 
if we be found worthy, we shall, after cycles of 
cycles have passed away, still be looking with 



The Law and the Prophets 69 

expectant eye to the further and still further un- 
rolling of the scroll of the wonderftil workings of the 
creative mind of the Omnipotent in connexion 
with the perfecting of our souls. Unless we refuse 
to conform to type and cease to be, we shall 
doubtless see that He has prepared something 
beautifully satisfying and compensating for our 
unhappy initial experience as a Creation. I 
think we may rest assured of this, because we 
were made in His Image, and Himself saw that it 
was a good creation. And so, it must be ultimately 
good, as sure as God is God. ''For He satisfieth 
the longing soul, and the hungry soul He filleth 
with good." Of this we are assured in His Word; 
so that no matter what our experiences here may 
be, we are not in a state of prophetic intellectuality 
to attempt to judge the wisdom and mercy of our 
Creator, as they bear on our future development 
and satisfaction of being. 

If we do but look around in Nature, we shall see 
that much development is attained by the newer 
forms of life being released from the decaying or 
obsolete. Do we not also find that stern trial 
tends to strengthen courage and purity of character 
in the human soul? So, unless we take the long, 
wide, unmeasured vista, we shall never approach 
to a beginning of the hopeful joy which may be 
ours, even when beset by seemingly overwhelming 
difficulties. We urge attention to this larger, 
timeless, outlook; in order that we may justify 



70 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

the position taken, that we, so far, as a creation, 
have only been learning, in our earth-life, kinder- 
garten lessons for a future education and maturity, 
analogous to the children's experience in kinder- 
garten days, compared with the highest develop- 
ment in education and culture of all kinds to which 
they may afterwards attain. 

When we look upon all racial experience from 
this larger standpoint, we may with reason pro- 
ceed to consider the children of Abraham as a 
people chosen specially to show forth the design in 
God's dealing with man in general. Among the 
lessons that we shall doubtless learn, is, first, that 
God is Life. We shall find that all Godlike quali- 
ties are life-giving qualities. Also we learn that we 
grow Godlike only by obedience to the light which 
we have been blessed with, and that we cannot 
become obedient in human strength alone ; that we 
need extra strength for the hour of sternest trial. 
But we also learn that we have no right to expect 
aid towards this obedience until we have put into 
energetic exercise all our God-bestowed faculties 
of resistance to evil. We must fight the good fight 
of faith and then we shall receive the strength that 
shall prove sufficient for us. We shall find that 
we need these troublesome temptations that come 
to us, which develop our ability to resist and to 
attain, and thus grow strong in our progress God- 
ward. We must, at times, have temptations which 
are too much for us to withstand, in order that 



The Law and the Prophets 71 

we may in our fall find that humility which seeks 
earnestly by repentance and prayer for forgiveness, 
and that strength of resisting quality which shall 
bring greater victory through obedience, after- 
wards. We learn that to fall easily and carelessly 
into temptation is to commit sin, and is not by any 
means the same innocent act as the falling of the 
weak through overwhelming and overpowering 
influence. While we easily and carelessly offend 
the Law of God, we induce spiritual disease 
and death. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die, " 
We struggle upward, we fall easily and carelessly 
downward. This also is general natural law. 

If the lesson of God's dealings with His ' * chosen " 
people were not intended for our instruction, in 
after life as well as now, it would not seem to us to 
be of much use, as, so far, we have to but little 
extent profited by it. If we are nearing the 
establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth, it 
may well serve as a lesson for those who are for- 
timate enough to become citizens of that Kingdom ; 
but would even that be of real use, if the Kingdom 
is but to be on earth for a thousand years as spoken 
of in the vision of John. But if we take that one 
thousand years as the seventh day, the complete 
day, the day when we shall rest from the constant 
struggle against temptation in a Sabbath of rest, 
then we have a complete picture of our Lesson but 
not of our Eternal Career. But for whom is this 
long-drawn sketch meant as a lesson if all our 



72 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

efforts towards Godlike service cease as we pass 
into the next stage of our being ? So we have come 
to hope, that the complete whole of the Creator's 
Earth-scheme is, ''One far off divine event to 
which the whole creation moves." And so 
extremely important are we in this divine process, 
that our career is being watched over by the 
heavenly hosts as to its results. Thus the ' ' chosen 
people" are still in evidence and are still fulfilling 
prophetic denouements, as is generally conceded. 

There have been many tribes and peoples other 
than this, but all have differed from it in this one 
particular, which seems to stand out in distinct 
relief. This people seems to possess, if I may use 
the term, an inherent immortality; while all others 
seem only to have the possibility oj attaining 
immortality. (I use the word in a restricted sense.) 
The doctrine of the predestined life or death of the 
soul surely gains some colour through this people's 
inherent quality of continued life on the Earth, 
when by their shameful disobedience to their light 
they had merited the death which in other peoples 
is induced by death-producing sin. This people 
sinned constantly and impudently in the face of 
their boasted law and yet lived on and on ; punished 
often and ultimately wrecked as a nation, yet to- 
day they live, though in a strange desperation. It 
would seem, from history, that all other peoples 
had a natural course to run. If they acted wisely, 
they lived longer, if unwisely, then shorter would 



The Law and the Prophets 73 

be their experience. And so we see empires and 
states rise, mature, and pass away into almost for- 
gotten history. But the children of promise have 
a strange story, which is not yet ended. From the 
time that God called Abraham out from Ur of the 
Chaldees, many splendid empires have come and 
gone. These have followed each other into ob- 
livion, like a procession of phantom but apparently 
stately and exceedingly handsome mammoth 
animals, that follow each other at intervals over the 
dunes of time and pass into the deep sea of ob- 
livion which lies far beyond, at the limit of our 
horizon. But the soul of this people still wanders 
about amid all the nations and peoples of this 
planet to-day, asking for a place among men where 
it may lay its weary body down to rest in peace. 
Hope on, ye deathless tried ones. He Who had 
not where to lay His head shall soon give thee thy 
place as a restored people, this we have reason to 
hope. Soon thy Sabbath shall come, God has 
promised it to thee ! 

Then do we conclude that some souls shall live, 
though disobedient, while more must die though 
fulfilling the Law? That conclusion does not 
reasonably follow from their history. Has not 
this people been in constant punishment for her 
sins? Has she escaped the result of the breakings 
of the law ? Is it not repentant and purified Israel 
that shall be restored? God is not mocked, what 
a people sows that also shall it reap. Was there 



74 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

no hope of life in Babylon, had she not been 
weighed and found wanting? Had she been 
found to be following her highest light, would she 
have perished miserably in her drunken imbecility ? 
Never! Did God destroy Nineveh when she 
earnestly repented ? We have no evidence either in 
reason or in the Word of God that a repentant and 
obedient man or nation is destroyed. It is the 
sinner who dies, because he is always in a state of 
dying. In the Jew, we shall find repentance and 
obedience sufficient to preserve his life. And so 
we find this people to be the type of a Christian's 
soul; at first warm in its obedient love for the 
Master and His holy service; but afterwards a 
strange medley of selfish actions and unholy 
qualities. Ofttimes rebellious, oftener careless, 
and more than any other sin, is he subject to the 
worship of other gods than the One True God. 
The wandering Christian soul often receives its 
well-merited punishment and disciplinary chidings 
from its great Head, with repentance and soul- 
sorrow, but alas, like its prototype, only to fall 
into sin again. But the soul of the Christian is a 
repentant one always or he is not Christian; he 
must be repentant until he attains his home of 
peace and rest in the purity of the Kingdom 
wherein no sin lingers. 

We may conclude that this child of Chaldee was 
called out from amongst his old associates that he 
might not be hindered from the purpose for which 



The Law and the Prophets 75 

God had chosen him. He was given much Hght, 
and was also granted strength to, in large measure, 
obey that light. He was given wonderful promises 
to be consummated in his posterity. He was given 
a land of plenty to live in, and all was well with 
him and his family. Then comes their long so- 
journ in Egypt and the burden of the oppressor. 

Next we find God calling Moses out from this 
now oppressed people to prepare himself to be 
their deliverer. We may then trace their weari- 
some journeyings between Egypt and the land of 
promise, Canaan. It was during this most trying 
journey that God saw fit to bestow upon the 
human race, through these people, His Royal 
Law. 

It is strange that this Law should have been 
fitted to the needs of this almost hopeless band of 
nomads; that it should stand good in the day 
and teaching of Jesus Christ, which succeeded the 
philosophical culture of Greece and Rome; and 
stranger still, that no modem cultist, whether he 
be philosophical, rationalistic, or superstitious, 
has been able to overthrow its basis of scientific 
reasonableness. Nor shall ever such an one arise. 
God alone can change His own Law, and we are 
assured by Him, that this Law of righteousness is 
forever. The keeping of the Law brings that 
soundness to a soul which excludes disease and 
death. This is a universal verity, had it not been 
written. 



76 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

We find that these people were "chosen" to 
carry the Law for us through many years and 
through the rise and fall of many empires. It has 
been justly said that they were, but in small meas- 
ure, obedient to this divine charge which they 
carried. One may easily know this, from the most 
careless reading of Scripture. But the Jew was a 
Jew, and refused to be aught else. God, doubtless, 
put this instinct in him that he might remain a 
separate people, though, alas, a homeless one. Still, 
all down the passing years which lie between the 
fires of Sinai and the advent of the Messiah, there 
were those amongst them who strove earnestly to 
obey the life-giving Words which issued from the 
Mount that awful day. And so Jesus, the Christ, 
found a few good and just men on His arrival in this 
sin-sick world ; and we are led by Scripture to feel 
assured that this people were never allowed to 
dwindle into weak and sinful relapse, for long or 
at all, without having some prophet, who was 
endowed by the brooding Spirit of God, to reprove 
them and to earnestly implore them to return to 
the obedient worship of the One True God. This 
chain of jewels reaches all the way from Moses 
until the Redeemer's day. Sadly they needed 
these exhortations, we feel sure, as we read of the 
finding of the ''book of the law of Jehovah given 
by Moses." They must have lost it in their 
indifference to its sacredness. It is difficult to 
imagine such a fall into the idolatrous state as made 



The Law and the Prophets 77 

this possible ; and we rejoice to read of the reforma- 
tion which was in progress at the time of its 
recovery. Thus the story goes on with this 
people ever falling, ever repenting only to fall 
again ; and so it continues until the closing of the 
inspired Word by Malachi, some four hundred 
years before the coming of the Saviour, In this 
inspired account, Jehovah assures this people of 
His love for them ; but He rebukes, exhorts, warns, 
threatens them and literally beseeches them to 
prove His words of promise if they will but repent 
and be obedient. He reminds them of His former 
dealings with their fathers and assures them that 
He changes not. He says, ''For I Jehovah change 
not; therefore ye, O Sons of Jacob, are not con- 
sumed. From the days of your fathers ye have 
turned aside from mine ordinances and have 
not kept them. Return unto me, and I will 
return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But 
ye say, Wherein shall we return? Will a man 
rob God? Yet ye rob me. But ye say. Wherein 
have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings, 
ye are cursed with the curse, for ye rob me, even 
this whole nation. Bring ye the whole tithe into 
the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, 
and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
if I will not open you the windows of heaven and 
pour you out a blessing that there shall not be 
room enough to receive it. And all nations shall 
call you happy; for ye shall be a delightsome land, 



78 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

saith Jehovah of hosts. Your words have been 
stout against me, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, What 
have we spoken against Thee? Ye have said, It 
is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we 
have kept His charge and that we have walked 
mournfully before Jehovah of hosts? and now we 
call the proud happy, yea, they that work wicked- 
ness are built, yea, they tempt God and escape." 
Again, He urges them to remember the Law of 
Moses and warns them that the great and terrible 
day of Jehovah shall come, and we know that, in 
the type, it came to them, and shall in the antitype 
come to us, and is indeed already upon us. Did 
they remember the Law to obey it? Did John 
the Baptist find a reformed and holy people ready 
for the Messiah's Kingdom? Did Jesus the 
Messiah find this people in a state of repentance 
because of the preaching of John? The Law 
taught constantly to these people by the prophets 
was not sufficient to keep them obedient. Our 
Redeemer found, their leaders at least, to be like 
whited sepulchres, hypocrites, and called them, 
** Offspring of vipers." This must have been an 
accurate description of their condition, as our Lord 
was ever truthful and would not stoop to mere 
abuse. He but spake of them as He found them 
in their double-faced religious life. Shall He find 
ourselves, the antitype, to be in this same condition 
of formal religious life, now at His coming? Are 
we greatly better in our obedience to the Law of 



The Law and the Prophets 79 

Jehovah as explained and emphasized by our 
Lord? Is there aught of the same class of sinning 
to be found in the individual life of our boasted 
Christendom ? 

What a picture of a struggling Christian soul is 
thus presented to us. We, like they, would, many 
of us, rather be martyrs to our faith than forsake 
it in favour of some other form of religion: but 
alas, to what length we, like they, are guilty of 
going in our faithless and adulterous conduct 
towards our recognized law of purity and sepa- 
rateness. As He found the Church of His earthly 
day shall He also find its antitype? ''Neverthe- 
less when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find the 
faith on the earth?" It is such a personal, indi- 
vidual matter, this goodness and living faith of a 
people, that an appeal must of necessity be ad- 
dressed to the people as units, rather than as 
a whole. A State can have no conscience, no soul, 
except as they exist in its units. All companies 
and corporations of men are subject to the wisdom 
and integrity of their units; and especially is this 
true of the Church of Christ in all its various sects 
and denominations. Any membership, small or 
great, which professes allegiance to Christ, is 
either serving God with all their minds, souls, and 
means, or they are traitors to Him Who gave all 
for them, just as the individual is true or traitor to 
his earthly kingdom. At the time of His first 
coming, He found a little cleanliness of soul, a 



8o If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

little beauty of character, a little trust in the 
Everlasting Father, among the people of the 
Church. May we not with reason hope that 
He shall also find some who have the true creden- 
tials for citizenship of His Holy City when He 
appears amongst us at the coming of His acknow- 
ledged Presence. Although when we look about us, 
we are appalled by the uniyersal prevalence of the 
soul-disease of sin, yet, do we not also see evidence 
of a universal searching into the causes and pro- 
posed cures of this leprous disease of sin, as it 
works its horrid way over the body, mental, 
physical, and spiritual, of our Race? Is not 
Christendom herself sorely afflicted with it, and 
are not the few earnest souls amongst her great 
membership striving valiantly to bring this 
loathsome disease of sinning under the cure of the 
Great Physician? We must strive against this 
evil that hangs heavily over our people to-day, 
because it is hiding God from our Race as a whole. 
We must so strive, one by one. Not only must we 
strive alone, each by himself, but we must also 
strive collectively. We must each fight his sins, 
one by one, as the temptation to sin arises. We 
must also fill our minds and souls with those 
generous and holy impulses which tend to exclude 
sinful desire. So shall we gain strength for the 
resistance which shall help us to conquer. Not 
only must we strive to cure our personal disease; 
but we must unite as one body to attack valiantly 



The Law and the Prophets Si 

all national crimes to which we are addicted. 
This our State is already attempting in no weak 
manner. God give them unity of purpose in the 
service of the Christ, to Whom all our statesmen 
and electors profess to be under allegiance. 

We ought to do better than our type of the old 
dispensation, for we have their experience of the 
result of disobedience to warn us; besides which 
we have nearly two thousand years of disobedient 
Christendom, with all its direful failure, to rebuke 
us. Not only have we had the Law and the Pro- 
phets until John, but also the divine explanations, 
promises, and warnings of Christ Himself. We 
have had the apostles and exhorters and earnest 
reformers, all the way down even until this testing 
day. Modem thought has been cleared somewhat 
by the better understanding of God's great goodness 
and providential works on our behalf. We have 
countless blessings poured upon our almost thank- 
less heads. What has it all availed us? Sadly, 
we are obliged to confess to a wofully sinful con- 
dition everywhere in our midst. The Kingdom of 
Heaven is to be in us or in the midst of us. Is it 
developing among us according to our light? 
Where much is granted, much is required. We 
had better think about this matter, for the profits 
of our disobedience to light may not be so alluring, 
if carefully considered, as they now seem to us. 
What unclean sin is there that is satisfying gain, 
in any individual or national life ? In this scientific 



82 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

day why do we still choose leprosy for a garment 
of death, rather than the seamless garment of the 
Christ-life? 

In one instance the Master tells the Pharisees 
that, ''The Law and the prophets were until John, 
from that time the Gospel of the Kingdom of God 
is preached and every man entereth violently into 
it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass 
away than for one tittle of the law to fail." He 
also said, ''Think not that I come to destroy the 
law or the prophets: I come not to destroy but 
to fulfil." At another time He tells His audience, 
"All things therefore whatsoever ye would that 
men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto 
them: for this is the law and the prophets." So 
it would look to the casual reader of the Scriptures 
as if the law and the prophets were obsolete; and 
in the same connexion we are told that these shall 
never fail and that the way into the Kingdom of 
Heaven was opened by obedience to the law and 
the prophets. Is there a contradiction here? It 
is not likely, when we know that all were the utter- 
ances of the Master. To the Pharisees who were 
steeped in the dogmas and customs belonging to 
the old dispensation, did He say that the law and 
the prophets were until John. These had become 
little more than ritualistic performance to those 
Pharisees, and all that they recognized in the law 
and the prophets was ended, in God's disciplinary 
purpose. This, I take it, was His meaning. But 



The Law and the Prophets 83 

there was no new intrinsic law for men. He came 
to fulfil the holy trend of all law and the teaching 
of all prophets. There was no new story to tell. 
Till heaven and earth passed away would these 
hold good, and they should yet be accomplished 
in men. This was what He told the mixed multi- 
tude which gathered around Him on the mountain 
side to hear the saving words of wisdom that fell 
from His truth-speaking lips. 

True, the law of Moses was held in reverence by 
these religious leaders, but it had come to be a 
thing to be arrogant over, rather than to be obeyed ; 
and their ritual had become their real religion. 
But there was no stifling ritual wound about the 
regal code of the King, when He came to them. 
So this ritualistic habit-bound people were not 
willing to keep His simple but far reaching law. 
We know this from His vehement denouncements 
of their leaders in religious life. Doubtless this 
ritual of their religion had been a cleansing and 
disciplinary institution and had served, at least, 
the purpose of keeping up their God-ordained 
separateness. But as the years passed away we 
see that these ordinances had become overvalued, 
shall we say, overworked. They came to have a 
prominence which was never intended by the Giver 
of the Great Law. It was the Ten Words of com- 
mand and restriction, which fitted the soul for the 
continued life. The ritual was but a clothing pro- 
vided for a childish people, that had been stripped 



84 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

of all idolatrous usages. In time the clothing 
became the main object of the religious aspirations 
of these people. In fact it became little more than 
a winding-sheet for the sleeping, dying soul of 
Judaism; and as yet her soul lies in a deathlike 
coma awaiting the voice of the One Whose it is to 
utter the command, '*I say unto thee, Arise." 

Since the day that this ritual-blinded people 
refused to recognize and acknowledge their long- 
expected Child until to-day, the religionists of 
the new dispensation have followed closely in the 
erring footsteps of the old. A few all down these 
centuries have discriminated between the essential 
law, and the petty rituals which were adopted by 
the new religionists, partly from Jewish habit and 
partly from the pagan affiliation. Perhaps the 
children of the dark and middle ages needed this, 
just as the Jew had needed it, to give them some- 
thing which they could observe, they not always 
being able to grasp the spiritual and essential in 
their religious belief. But always a few have been 
as a little leaven hidden in the flour; enough to 
gradually impregnate the whole with the vital 
energy of living truth. Always these few were 
endeavouring to purify the religion of their brethren 
in their day and generation. Mediaeval reformers 
followed the Early Fathers. Always have these 
and their modern successors followed in the wake 
of the prophets of old in their endeavour to warn 
a rebellious people against trusting to an empty 



The Law and the Prophets 85 

faith or meaningless ritual, and against the break- 
ing of the true Law. But this was mostly in vain, 
as it had also been with the prophets of old. And 
so we find that the spiritual darkness which hung 
so impenetrably over them, was but their self- 
imposed clouds of error in over-estimating the 
trivial, and ignoring the illuminating law of God, 
which tended to the cleansing of their lives from 
sin. The modern world may wonder how these 
old Jewish religionists found time for aught else 
after following rigidly all the sub-laws and petty 
ordinances. We find that they were not kept 
quite bus}'' enough by those which Moses had 
imposed upon them for discipline and to ensure a 
certain separateness, but they must needs add to 
them others of their own invention. We wonder 
at a mature people doing this. But the trouble 
was, the souls of the many did not mature, but 
sank into spiritual degeneracy, like aged men in 
their physical and mental senility, whom we may 
often observe to be amused and occupied by trivial 
objects, quite forgetting or ignoring the grave 
issues of the day. So, to this already too lengthy 
list of self-imposed laws and ordinances, they must 
needs add also oral traditions and many more 
trivial sub-laws. All this mimimery was a joy and 
pride to the senile or childish soul of Judaism. 
Loudly the few called to them to awaken into man- 
hood; but with a few short-lived exceptions they 
slept hopelessly on, or played aimlessly with their 



86 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

childish toys. It were far easier for them to pass 
the years in coma, than to arise and go with the few 
to Hsten and worship at the simple but awful Mount 
of Jehovah, where the searching fires burned 
fiercely and where the tempests of reformation 
roared thunderously about them. They preferred 
to repeat their traditions, read and re-read their 
old and newer self-imposed sub-laws and ordi- 
nances, and continue in the old path of indifference 
to the stirring of Sinai. And so the Redeemer of 
their souls found them at His advent, all but a few. 
Hypocrites, offspring of vipers, whited sepulchres, 
He found them to be, and childish in their love of 
play-toys — but not childish in innocence. They 
crucified Him more because He insisted that they 
should obey the Law as given through Moses, of 
which they were so arrogantly proud, than because 
He claimed to be the Messiah. Had He appeared 
in a spirit of pride and formality, they would 
doubtless have considered His claim; but a clean 
life and a meek and lowly spirit were no recom- 
mendation to these fallen children of Abraham. 
He was the Prophet, the last of a long line to come 
to them before their final fall into a long continued 
and weary homelessness. 

That this people did not, as a whole, obey the 
law of Moses is easily proved by prophet after 
prophet. Moses, as he stood before the people, 
just as he was about to bid them farewell, reminded 
them, with particular emphasis, of the enviable 



The Law and the Prophets 87 

importance of their position in the world of men. 
Did they, for long, remember his wise counsel, or 
try to sustain the dignity and responsibility of their 
unique position? We find from the exhortation 
of the prophets that after Joshua slept with his 
fathers they soon lapsed into a state of corruption, 
which was brought about by forgetfulness of their 
covenant with Jehovah, and too free intercourse 
with the idolatrous peoples whom they had con- 
quered, but in many cases had not driven out of 
Canaan. From the time of the death of Joshua 
and the elders who helped him to rule, through the 
period of judges, until Saul was called to be the first 
king to rule over them, their history is an amazing 
tale of falling away and of repenting, only to fall 
again. One wonders that a people could forget 
the special providence of Jehovah in a short period 
of some three hundred years. Neither Othniel, 
Deborah, Gideon, nor even Samuel could restrain 
this rebellious people for more than a decade or 
two. And at the end of this period of the ruling, 
of Israel by judges, it is said, *'In those days there 
was no king in Israel: every man did that which 
was right in his own eyes. " 

Then comes Israel's term under her own line of 
kings, beginning with Saul. They had insisted on 
having a monarchy like other nations. After being 
warned of the disastrous results which would 
follow this course, they were allowed to establish 
this form of government. Did this gratification of 



88 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

their rebellious desire bring them more stability of 
character or more purity of State Government? 
No, nor does their subsequent history justify them. 
The awful prophetic powers of Elijah and Elisha 
failed to bring this people into a state of holiness 
at all compatible with the purifying law which 
they held in their special keeping. The stirring 
exhortations, beseechings, and warnings of the 
splendidly gifted prophet Isaiah met with but little 
response in their habit-hardened souls. The lesser 
prophets called to them often and with vehemence, 
but mostly in vain. Jeremiah, that mournful seer 
of distress, anguish, and overthrow, shows us to 
what length the chosen seed of Abraham had gone 
and to what depths they had fallen. What a sad 
wail issues from his prophetic soul ! Jehovah tells 
him that ' ' If ye can find a man, if there be any that 
doeth justly, that seeketh the truth : I will pardon 
her. " But alas, we must conclude that none were 
found. But even so, Jehovah spared their lives, 
we may assume, for His own plans later on. He 
says, "But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I 
will not make a full end of you. And it shall come 
to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah 
our God done all these things unto us ? then shalt 
thou say unto them. Like as ye have forsaken me 
and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye 
serve strangers in a land that is not yours. The 
word came to Jeremiah, saying. Stand in the gate 
of Jehovah's house and proclaim there this word 



The Law and the Prophets 89 

and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah 
that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. 
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, 
Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause 
you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying 
words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple 
of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah are these. For 
if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings ; 
if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man 
and his neighbours ; if ye oppress not the sojourner, 
the fatherless and the widow, and shed not in- 
nocent blood in this place, neither walk after other 
gods, to your own hurt; then will I cause you to 
dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your 
fathers from of old even for evermore. Behold, 
ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will 
ye steal, murder and commit adtdtery and swear 
falsely and bum incense unto Baal and walk after 
their gods that ye have not known, and come and 
stand before me in this house, which is called by 
my name, and say, We are delivered, that ye may 
do all these abominations ? Is this house, which is 
called by my name, become a den of robbers in 
your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith 
Jehovah." Again and again are these rebellious 
people warned and even besought to return to the 
true faith and to saner habits; but all in vain. 
Then comes the threat of captivity to the power of 
Babylon. Seventy years of this unwelcome cap- 
tivity and servitude they were threatened with 



90 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

if they did not hasten to repent. The fulfilment 
of this threat a little later proves to us the hard- 
ness of their hearts and the degeneracy of their 
spiritual life. And thus this proud and favoured 
family passed into an exile from which compara- 
tively few of them have ever, as yet, returned. 

But even then God loved those sinning and 
stricken children of promise. He says, ' ' Is Ephra- 
im my dear son? Is he a darling child? for as 
often as I speak against him, I do earnestly re- 
member him still : therefore my heart yearneth for 
him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith 
Jehovah." And so God was ever pitiful and 
tender in heart to these disobedient wanderers. 
In an agony of homelessness and sorrow, Jeremiah 
utters his lamentations over the misery of captive 
Zion. He says, *'Is it nothing to you, all ye that 
pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow 
like unto my sorrow, which is brought upon me in 
the day of His fierce anger." It is a sad story 
of a lost opportunity which never came to them 
again. Small wonder that they sang such dirge- 
like songs in those avenging days of their insulted 
Jehovah. Small wonder that they wailed forth their 
belated affection for Zion in the saddest of all songs : 

By the rivers of Babylon, 

There we sat down, yea, we wept 

When we remembered Zion. 

Upon the willows in the midst thereof 

We hanged up our harps. 



The Law and the Prophets 91 

For they that led us captive required of us songs, 
And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, 
Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 
How shall we sing the Jehovah's song 
In a foreign land? 



O, saddest of all children of earth, why did you not 
remember your warning before your doom fell? 
Alas that your sorrowful but belated words of 
affection bore so little subsequent good fruit! 

A reasonable mind would hope to find in the 
history of this people a marked and lasting change 
of conduct after their return from their hated 
bondage; but what do we rather find? First, 
that comparatively few were willing to return at all, 
and second, that amongst those who did return 
were many who had broken the law of separate- 
ness by marrying wives from amongst the idola- 
trous nation by whom they had been taken captive. 

We find Ezra rebuilding the temple and en- 
deavouring to restore the people to the lawful wor- 
ship of the God of their Fathers, and to the clean 
and separate mode of living which was an essential 
part of the Great Law. Soon after this we find 
Nehemiah coming to assist Ezra in governing the 
people, and helping to complete the work by build- 
ing a wall around their beloved city, Jerusalem. 
And Nehemiah writes in a rather self-congratu- 
latory style, "Thus cleansed I them from every- 
thing foreign and appointed charges for the priests 
and for the Levites, every one in his work, and for 



92 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

the wood offering at times appointed, and for the 
firstfniits. Remember me, O my God, for good." 
A very few decades pass over this unfortunate 
people and we shall see, by reading Malachi's word 
of prophecy, into what relapse they had again 
fallen. Through this prophet, Jehovah, for the 
last time until John, accuses, convicts, argues, even 
beseeches them to try Him once more and see if 
they would not be so blest that their storehouses 
should not be large enough for the great good that 
should be theirs in the obedient life. He also 
tells them that a day shall come when all wicked- 
ness shall be destroyed as in a furnace of fire, and 
that if they would but turn and receive the mes- 
senger of light, they should tread all the wicked 
(or wickedness) under their feet. But, He warns 
them, ''Remember ye the Law of Moses my serv- 
ant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for 
all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. And 
thus Jehovah re-commands them and leaves off 
His beseechings until some four hundred years later, 
when he sends John the Baptist, "In the Spirit 
and power of Elijah. " Did these latest and most 
touchingly tender beseechings, or threatening ex- 
hortations, serve to keep or make these people 
holy during this silent interim which followed? 
Secular history does not so state it. And did the 
Prophet-King find a listening obedient people 
awaiting Him in hopeful holy gladness? True a 
few wise men followed the guiding star of hope 



The Law and the Prophets 93 

until they came to where He lay in all His young, 
innocent greatness. These came from afar with 
glorious visions which hastened their willing feet. 
They had watched for the prophetic traveller of 
the heavens to tell them that the Child had indeed 
come and to lead them thither. They cry to each 
other, See the star. See the radiant prophetic 
orb of light, w^hich betokens Man's coming redemp- 
tion; let us arise and follow where it leads us and 
we shall surely find the Divine Child. On, on, 
they went their hopeful way past Herod's lowering 
troubled gaze and questionings, until they — 

Accost a group of pious shepherd men, 

Who seem to converse most exultantly. 

Thus spoke the Magi then, Know ye men aught 

Of Israel's lordly king bom here to-night? 

These pious shepherd men told the wise watchers 
a strange story of the glory which attended the 
arrival of the Divine Child among the world of men. 
They told them of the prophetic Star, of the sons 
of the angelic choir, and, strangest of all, that He 
was not to be found in a palace; they told these 
wise seekers after Christ, 

But seek Him not in lordly palace hall, 
For in a manger low your Saviour lies. 

Alas for Israel that all her children were not wise 
men or pious shepherds. Alas that He came in all 
His innocent greatness unto His own and that His 



94 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

own received Him not. Alas, it was those who 
most loudly professed to be looking for Him by 
whom He was despised and rejected. Alas, that it 
should have been His own who mocked Him in His 
agony, and who pressed the piercing thorns into 
His regal brow, and sought to utterly destroy Him 
on the ignominious Cross. Alas that these did not 
perceive the Divine Presence overshadowing the 
cruel mocking Cross, or the shadow of the inex- 
orable Nemesis which silently but surely enveloped 
them in the night of their own impending doom. 
We doubt not but that they would have received 
Him with haughty pride, had He come to them in 
the gaudy trappings of ritualistic religion or 
worldly splendour and pomp of earthly kingship, or 
in the trail of victorious warfare. But such was 
not His way of entry into His Kingdom; and since 
these religionists were neither wise men nor pious 
shepherds, they cried out that they would not have 
this man to rule over them and insisted that He 
should be crucified. They hoped to thus end this 
hated doctrine of the holy life as displacing mere 
rites and ceremonies. He found these people so 
incrusted in their rites and ceremonies that they 
had become blinded to the original significance of 
them; they had become as a pall of darkness over 
their souls, even darker, because thicker and harder 
than in the days of the prophets. The mere form 
of religion had obscured their vision of holiness. 
In former days they did have short periods of 



The Law and the Prophets 95 

repentance, after being exhorted and threatened 
by the prophets; but neither John nor Christ 
Himself, nor His apostles could bring light into 
these darkened souls. With but few exceptions 
they did not seem to have a thought of sorrow over 
their past and present sins, or a thought of a 
possible reconstruction of their social and religious 
life along lines of holiness; purity, love, and the 
seamless garment did not appeal to them as kingly 
qualities or trappings suitable either for their 
Messiah or themselves. 

After a brief survey of the history of this people 
from their first call to a separate and obedient life 
until the Redeemer duly came amongst them, we 
can easily see the standpoint of His pronounce- 
ments on The Law and the Prophets. The form- 
alties of their rites and ceremonies, the sub-laws of 
their own introduction, and all the encrusting 
usages of their religion were to be swept away by 
the regime of holiness, of a pure life, and a loving 
attitude toward each other. This He taught the 
ritualists. But to the mixed multitude, the com- 
mon people, He gave the words of simple truth. 
He taught them that the Great Code which was 
formulated amidst the fires of Sinai must now and 
forever be obeyed absolutely by all. Not one jot 
or tittle might they disregard with impunity. He 
sums up the meaning of this Great Code to us in a 
few well-chosen words, which no man has as yet 
excelled in simple but appealing power. To 



96 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

ntdlify the influence of these few words amongst 
men has occupied Satan and his legions for these 
nearly two thousand years; and still is this one 
simple utterance the dividing sword of all human 
issues, be they great or seemingly small. True, 
at other times He analyzes and amplifies this brief 
Word, but always do His teachings keep close 
within the embrace of these two commands on 
which, He tells us, ''The whole Law hangeth and 
the Prophets." These are, "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind; and the other. Thou 
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Can we 
wonder that prophetic exhortations had been 
given forth by Jehovah for the purpose of bringing 
back the wandering hearts of these children of 
Promise to the keeping of these two laws? To 
love the One true God onl}^ and to deal righteously 
with his brother, or better still, his neighbour, 
according as the minute law required, was the 
whole duty of the Israelite. Jesus preached this 
doctrine to Jew and Gentile alike. Personal 
purity and cleanliness of both mind and body was 
emphasized in the Mosaic ritual; for how would a 
soul dare to face the All-Seeing Creator with con- 
cealed filth of mind or body? A man must be a 
clean offering before his Maker. To love his 
neighbour as himself, a man must first have a 
clean and wholesome mind and body else he be- 
comes a constant menace of contagion to his fellow- 



The Law and the Prophets 97 

citizen. Our present-day and ever increasing 
movements of slum cleansing, of quarantine, of 
civic baths, of civic sanitation laws, and all kin- 
dred attempts at cleanliness in modern physical 
life, are embraced in this second command. All 
movements calculated to correct selfish and op- 
pressive systems and to destroy crushing combines 
of tyrannical commerce, etc., are also of this wise 
Word. All efforts at training the young mind to 
be careful in his consideration for others and in 
training him in the knowledge of the scientifically 
reasonable and ultimate advantage of purity of 
habits and conduct and of the national improve- 
ment, moral and physical, which is the result of the 
clean mental and physical living of the units of a 
nation; all these efforts are towards the ideal set 
up in the old law by rites and ordinances, which 
are renewed by our Redeemer, without the rites 
and ordinances, but with a wider, kindlier vision 
of the brotherhood of the human family. Fearing 
that we might exclude some of the family from our 
kindly attention, He tells us that if we so neglect 
any of these least we thus neglect Him. 

It seems to me that these teachings as they bear 
on our day, this day of pregnant crisis, may with 
reason be regarded from two main standpoints in 
our conception of their working. We shall for 
want of more perfect descriptive terms call, them 
attitude and environment. We take it that these 
two great commands spoken of by our Lord, can 



98 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

never be obeyed by us until our mental attitude 
towards God and our brother is corrected and 
cleansed. Given a people of correct and clean 
mental attitude towards God and all mankind, 
then and only then are we ready for the Great Battle, 
This Great Battle is that effort of the national, aye, 
racial soul, which employs its spirit-inspired energy 
in developing our corrected attittide into an ideal 
environment. The sincerity of our loving attitude 
towards God, is only proven by our obedience to 
His commands regarding our neighbourliness. The 
sincerity of our loving attitude towards our neigh- 
bour can only be proven by our kindly attention 
to his physical, mental, and spiritual environ- 
ment. If we cannot decide as to who is our neigh- 
bour, we had better read what our teacher said 
about this testing point. After doing so we shall 
know that any human being who is in need of help 
to a better attitude or environment, is our neigh- 
bour. To love him is to have his wounds dressed 
and have him placed where he may be cared for and 
his recovery ensured by kindly wisdom. We must 
pay all incurred charges for him, we must feel the 
loss of his gain. The poet Lowell has very truly 
and beautifully expressed this thought of the holy 
joy of caring for the needy in the following lines: 

And Sir Launfal said, I behold in thee 

An image of Him Who died on the tree; 

Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns, 

Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns, — 



The Law and the Prophets 99 

And to thy life were not denied 
The wounds in the hands and feet and side. 
Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me, 
Behold through Him I give to thee. 

And the voice that was calmer than silence said : 

"Lo, it is I, be not afraid; 

In many climes without avail, 

Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail; 

Behold it is here — this cup which thou 

Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now; 

This crust is My body broken for thee, 

This water His blood that died on the tree; 

The Holy Supper is kept, indeed. 

In whoso we share in another's need, 

Not what we give but what we share, — 

For the gift without the giver is bare. 

Who gives himself with his alms feeds three. 

Himself, his hungering neighbour, and me." 

We must be brave knights of the Holy Grail 
and drink of His cup of self-renunciation. We 
must be brave and earnest and obedient soldiers 
in this awful fight, this Great Battle, which is 
now in progress between the Powers of Darkness 
and the Light of the World. When all our mental 
attitudes are corrected by the Light of Christ 
the Redeemer we shall soon join as one in this 
Great Battle which has for its issue the reign of 
righteousness upon earth under the rule of the Sun 
of Righteousness. This is the environment in 
which we all have a, perhaps latent, hope. The 
abstract of our ideals must be developed into 
the concrete. It is the change of attitude from the 



100 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

hollow, unctuous cry of "Lord, Lord/' into the 
groan of the repentant, contrite soul on its knees 
crying, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" 
"Lord, send me. " Great God of Battle, do Thou 
we pray conscript us, when we lack the vision and 
courage to break compact with the Prince of all 
Evil. Give us to remember, O Christ, that each 
soul who bears Thy Name is a Keeper of the Holy 
Grail. Oh, forgive us in Thy pitiful forbearance, 
when we forget to feed and clothe Thee, and give 
Thee drink, both physical and spiritual! Ours is 
such a day of radiant hope if we will but see it. 
The binding, cramping, ordinances of the old law, 
disciplinary as they were, have now become 
obsolete; were made so when Christ died, and the 
temple veil was rent in twain. The new dispensa- 
tion was to be conducted under the Law of all the 
essential good in the old, and instead of the im- 
posed discipline there was to be a larger freedom, 
a greater kindliness. It was to be so much 
broader that it included all the nations of the earth. 
This great freedom we have degraded into licence ; 
and no Jewish history can rival the history of our 
disobedient quarrellings, and the general cor- 
ruption of the nominally Christian Church, from 
her fall into semi-paganism until the Reformation. 
True, much holy endeavour has been made to 
correct and cleanse her disgraceful uncleanness; 
but the result, until the more effective recent 
endeavours, has been quite in keeping with the 



The Law and the Prophets loi 

discouraging disobedience and uncleanness re- 
corded regarding the former dispensation. 

But all the Prophets point to a better fulfilling of 
the Royal Law. All these great prophets foretold 
the glorious day when Hope with her white wings 
shall cover the whole earth! Hope with her 
pinions grown into gigantic proportions, compared 
with her now feebly fluttering and helpless little 
wings; grown infinitely and eternally broad and 
long, from the experience of this testing period. 
Hope will then lead our vision far away into the 
eternal years, into an infinite and happier existence. 
We shall see visions ; we shall dream dreams. We 
are in dire agony of unrest now, but we should call 
to mind that at no time is a mother's hope so sure 
as when in the pangs of travail. Her poor patient 
body is rent with its awful but sublimely dignified 
office of launching a new soul into the eternal 
process. So, at no time should our hope have so 
much reason to expand and rise as when we find 
ourselves in the pangs of travail for the birth of a 
new day, a new dispensation ; the Holy City in the 
Kingdom of God. Long has Mother-Earth carried 
this day in her patient body, but now she is coming 
near the hour of her deliverance. Dear Hope, stay 
with us in this awful hour. Faith, Hope, and Love, 
come into our hearts and fill us so full that Doubt, 
Despair, and Hate shall be driven back into the 
Satanic regions from which they have emanated. 

When the Jewish Church crucified our Lord, 



102 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

they had a very slight ground for excuse. Christ 
Himself said, ''Father, forgive them, they know 
not what they do." These children of promise 
had looked for a Prince who should make them 
secure as a nation and who should ultimately rule 
over all the world. They had also looked for a 
Prophet to come as well as their King, the Messiah, 
and they expected that Elijah would come. 
Doubtless they expected that when Elijah came 
he would do perhaps much greater things than in 
his former life; but John came preaching repent- 
ance, a doctrine that mere formal religion always 
loathes. So they slew him and thought to end the 
matter. John had preached the approaching 
Kingdom of Heaven, and a speedy preparation for 
its arrival. Then he acknowledged Jesus to be the 
Messiah and King of the approaching State, 
which the Jew was expecting as a temporal one. 
When Jesus began to assert His mission. He did not 
demand this temporal throne or their temporal 
support; but only asked that they should become 
pure in heart and life, even as Himself was pure. 
In their mad anger they seemed quite to forget that 
"that Prophet" should also come to them as well 
as the King. They did not seem to perceive that 
Jesus was first "That Prophet" and at once and 
ultimately the Messiah King. So while the Jewish 
people were guilty of refusing the call to repentance, 
which refusal blinded their vision to the Divine 
Mission of Jesus; still, Jesus Himself excuses 



The Law and the Prophets 103 

them from the crime of wilful murder of their long 
hoped-for Messiah. He said, ''They know not 
what they do." And afterwards Paul warns the 
Hebrew converts against "falling away." He 
told them that "falling away" after knowing the 
truth about Jesus Christ's mission, was crucifying 
the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an open 
shame. And just here is the point on which our 
measure of Christianity rests, and by which it is 
tested. We know and acknowledge Him to be 
indeed The Christ. Very well. Then it follows 
that if we fall away from the true faith, we crucify 
Him afresh in full knowledge of His Royal and 
Divine standing. This, we may claim, the Jews 
did not do. Added to our knowledge of Christ's 
office, is the real sin of the Jew, the refusal to repent 
of our sins and the desire for a worldly kingdom 
instead of the Kingdom of God on earth. Their 
sinning is far outdone by our hardness of heart and 
our blinded vision regarding real faith. The 
nominal (not the true) Church of Christ has since 
the second or third century asked for a Christ who 
should be a temporal power; a condition which He 
refused to accept until the time of the fulfilment 
of the Kingdom of God on earth. His Kingdom, 
so far, on earth, is in the hearts of men. Then 
shall we invite this Holy Occupation in order that 
our ideals shall be raised to the heavenly standard 
of holiness, and that these ideals may be matured 
into happy reality ? Shall we so repent that we are 



I04 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

willing for this ? He stands at the door of each of 
our hearts knocking patiently for admittance. 
Shall we open the door to Him? Shall we? Or 
shall we crucify Him, each soul, one by one, and 
thus ensure a complete reign of Satan, instead of 
Christ Jesus, on earth? 

By the Royal Law which issued forth from God 
amidst the fires and tempests of Sinai; by the 
warnings and beseechings of the prophets and the 
Christ Himself; by the retributive punishments laid 
upon this hardened and disobedient people ; by the 
removal of the Shekinah from the Ark of the 
Temple; by the desperation and homelessness of 
this favoured but now sorrowful family of royal 
children ; by all these experiences and their wonder- 
ful similarity to the nominal Christian Church all 
down the weary ages even until to-day, do I 
beseech of Christendom to unite in a simple essen- 
tial creed, the creed that He Himself taught, 
which has for its own essentials, obedient love to 
God and to His Christ by the aid of the Holy 
Spirit. This will bring us to a just love toward 
our neighbour which will be worked out by us in 
the ordinary daily walks of life. 

If we could only get a true vision of the "Law 
and the Prophets" and of the office of the Divine 
Child, this Son of the Blessed; if we would only 
unite to give Him our joyful support in His holy 
mission among men as we may be led by the Spirit ; 
and if we would only consent to forget for a decade 



The Law and the Prophets 105 

or two our non-essential doctrines, remembering 
that Christ demands obedience to God, before He 
gives much knowledge, and with one consent pray 
and work as men and women never prayed and 
worked before, would all this effort fail? Should 
we be of any assistance to our waiting King ? If we 
do not thus unite in this general effort, is it that 
we would rather have a great sectarian Christen- 
dom than unity under Christ? Do we want this 
Man to rule over us ? Surely in our inner souls we 
do want Him. Shall we not only allow Him, but 
beseech of Him, to come in and occupy His legiti- 
mate Throne ? Is the time near for our acceptance 
or rejection of the Risen Christ Who gave His life 
for us ? How shall this crucial day end ? One by 
one we answer to the call of the Saviour. One by 
one we answer the question which decides — 
Christ's destiny ? no, but our own destiny. Are we 
ready and willing to help fulfil ''The Law and the 
Prophets, " or are we preparing to for ever crucify 
the Lord of Light, and put Him to an open vshame ? 
Oh, He asks so little of us, that we marvel at the 
unwillingness of the many. He only asks of us 
that we do unto others as we would have them do 
unto us ; surely we could begin at once this simple 
creed; and after we become obedient to this all- 
embracing Word, we should be taught of weightier 
matters — if there be such. 

May God help those who are already striving 
valiantly to obey this great Word; and may this 



io6 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

most divinely taught company constantly be added 
to, until we shall be able to remove much of the 
shame that we have heaped upon the Crucified 
One, the Beloved of His Father. 

Traveller, o'er yon mountain height 
See that glory-beaming star; 
Watchman, does its beauteous ray 
Aught of hope or joy foretell? 
Traveller, yes; it brings the day, 
Promised day of Israel. 

Watchman, tell us of the night, 
For the morning seems to dawn; 
Traveller, darkness takes its flight; 
Doubt and terror are withdrawn. 

Watchman, let thy wandering cease; 
Hie thee to thy quiet home; 
Traveller, lo, the Prince of Peace, 
Lo, the Son of God is come. 

Sir J. Bowring, 



CHAPTER IV 

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM 

"And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their syna- 
gogues and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing 
all manner of disease and all manner of sickness among the 

P^P^®-" Matt. IV. 23. 

"The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither 
shall they say, Lo, here; or lo, there; the Kingdom of God is 

^*^^y°^-" Luke XVII. 20, 21. 

"And a throne shaU be established in lovingkindness; and one 
shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and 
seeking justice and swift to do righteousness." 

ISA. XVI. 5. 

"In the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my 
people, it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the Living 

^^•" H03.i.I0. 

WE have in a previous chapter noted the fact 
that our career as a Race was designed to 
be so very interesting to the spiritual world that the 
angels desired to look into the operation of God's 
plan for our ultimate salvation. It was to be a 
rather complex process, or so it seems to our dimly- 
finite conception, as we look back over the frag- 
mentary records of our Adamic family. First we 

107 



io8 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

have Adam's (shall we call it) ignorant innocence, 
then we have his weak disobedience to God's 
restrictive commands; then we have the promise 
of the tempter's final overthrow. After this, we 
find that when the people became desperately 
wicked, God destroyed all of Adam's descendants 
except Noah and his family, by the flood. Next 
we see the dispersion of Noah's descendants which 
was caused by their attempt to build the Tower of 
Babel. The next important event which we find 
chronicled is the call of Abraham, with the special 
blessing promised to him by the mysterious Mel- 
chizedek, who we learn was the priest of God 
Most High ; to whom Abraham gave a tenth of all 
he had. Long years after this happened, Jehovah 
through His prophets announced to the people that 
the Messiah was to be a priest for ever, after the 
order of Melchizedek ; and some centuries later this 
Priest was described as being without father, with- 
out mother, without genealogy, having neither 
beginning of days nor end of life, but made like 
unto the Son of God. 

We read the long history of Abraham's family, 
and all the exhortations and threatenings of 
Jehovah through the prophets and the punish- 
ments brought on them through other nations, in 
God's overruling providence. And all the way 
through the Old Testament story are interwoven the 
descriptive prophecies concerning the Messiah who 
was to appear at a later date, and was to come out 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 109 

of this chosen family; but was to be Redeemer of 
the whole race without exception. "Every knee 
shall bow, etc." Along with all this we have 
many and varied descriptions of the promised 
Kingdom of the Redeemer of the world. And 
these descriptions agree that this Kingdom meant 
a universal state of sinlessness on earth, under the 
direct and acknowledged rule of the Messiah. 
The world can have no choice but to be ruled by 
Christ when its heart and conduct are fully set upon 
righteousness, because that is the essential condi- 
tion of His regime. As we look about us and ob- 
serve the almost universal standard of morality in 
all phases of life, it is easy to perceive that a new 
regime must be acknowledged by men's souls to- 
day if righteousness is to cover the earth. Now, 
our obedience is given, some to Christ and more to 
Satan. This cannot for long continue. We must 
give our undivided allegiance either to the Builder, 
or to the Destroyer. We cannot for long now serve 
the two masters. Were there no need of a new 
regime in men's hearts, there need be no Messiah. 
Had His first appearance brought perfect obedience 
to the Royal Law in the universal heart of man, 
there had been no need for Him to sow the seed 
and then go away and come again at the time of the 
Great Harvest; no need of His second coming to 
earth in the majesty of His fully accomplished 
Kingship and victory over sin and death in the 
world. 



no If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

The old law of restrictions and obligations was 
not sufficient to renew fallen mankind into the 
status of the Sons of God. It was experimented 
upon in the presence of the heavenly hosts, and it 
must have been seen by them to be at least a partial 
failure ; and as a general curative remedy, we, with 
our short-sighted human conception, can scarcely 
see it to be other than a grievous and almost entire 
failure. If God did not mean it to be just such a 
failure His prophets could not have so accurately 
foretold this hopeless effect of the law of obligations 
and restrictions, of rites and ceremonies, upon the 
people in general. It was doubtless a part of the 
designed object lesson and intended for ultimate 
good. This regime of ritual law became to the 
people like the overpruning of a tree until it could 
scarcely breathe and live, much less bear fruit. 
Some few there were who became strong enough to 
survive the process and matured into souls of rare 
spiritual purity and strange potency; but more of 
them united their own mode of worship with that 
of their idolatrous neighbours; and the remainder 
of the people became encrusted in formalism, to 
the destruction of their spiritual life. And so the 
Messiah found the ritualists who composed the 
Church of God of His day at His first coming. 

Paul contends with the Hebrews regarding the 
all-sufficiency of the old regime thus: ''Now if 
there was perfection through the Levitical priest- 
hood (for under it hath the people received the law) 



The Gospel of the Kingdom iii 

what further need was there that another priest 
should arise after the order of Melchizedek and not 
be reckoned after the order of Aaron? For the 
priesthood being changed, there is made of neces- 
sity a change also of the law. For he of whom 
these things are said belongeth to another tribe, 
from which no man hath given attendance at the 
altar. For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung 
out of Judah ; as to which tribe Moses spake noth- 
ing concerning priests. And what we say is yet 
more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of 
Melchizedek there ariseth another priest, who 
hath been made, not after the law of a carnal com- 
mandment, but after the power of an endless [or 
indissoluble] life ; for it is witnessed of him. 

Thou art a priest for ever, 
After the order of Melchizedek. 

For there is a disannulling of a foregoing command- 
ment because of its weakness and unprofitableness 
(for the law made nothing perfect) and the bring- 
ing in thereupon of a better hope through which 
we draw nigh to God." After Paul has further 
explained this change of dispensation to these 
Hebrews, he quotes Jeremiah's words from Jeho- 
vah, which promise a new covenant ; and the main 
difference between the old and the new was, that 
the new was to be in the minds and hearts of the 
people. It was to be a time when all should know 
the Lord and His law, and should hasten to do the 



112 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

will of God with gladness of being. And he 
speaks further of the old law as ''being a shadow 
of the good things to come. The old law of gifts 
and sacrifice and of observances could not, " he 
said, "as touching the conscience make the wor- 
shipper perfect, being only (with meats and drinks 
and divers washings) carnal ordinances, imposed 
until a time of reformation." And he tells them 
how by faith many had died in the hope of these 
promises, having seen them and greeted them from 
afar. These had tried to live up to the light which 
they were granted by God; but they also had faith 
that a Light should in time come into the world, 
that should fully illuminate the souls of the whole 
race. Paul, perhaps more than any of the in- 
spired writers, seems to have had the gift bestowed 
upon him in remarkable degree of perceiving the 
wider, more timeless meanings of things : of seeing 
into the measureless, ageless vista of the infinite 
plan of our Creator for His creature Man, who was 
made after His own Image. Paul sees that it is 
wide enough to be universal, and long enough that 
centuries upon centuries must pass away in its 
consummation. He sees that faith in the ultimate 
good, and implicit obedience of a few to their law, 
gave these old dispensation souls security from 
destruction. 

He also sees that "the promise [or fruition] 
came not to them first that they should be per- 
fected before the general day of grace." Paul, 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 113 

we conclude, considers that God's plan did not 
permit of these sturdy souls reaching their full 
attainment before the day of grace. He writes, 
"And these all, having had witness borne to them 
through their faith, received not the promise, God 
having provided some better thing concerning us, 
that apart from us they should not be made per- 
fect. " Paul explains to the Corinthians, that 
Christ's kingdom extends into the state of spiritual 
existence which follows after physical death. He 
argues that if Christ were not raised from the 
physical death to which He was subjected, then 
our faith is vain, and believers are yet in their 
sins. He adds, ''then they also that have fallen 
asleep in Christ have perished." And he adds, 
"If we have only hope in this life, we are of all 
men most pitiable." Paul further continues in a 
strangely weighty and somewhat mystical passage, 
which is wholesome spiritual food for us, though 
somewhat difficult to digest, until we analyze it 
carefully, and utterly without preconceived ideas. 
This passage reads thus: "But now hath Christ 
been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them 
that are asleep. For since by man came death, 
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be 
made alive. But each in his own order: Christ 
the firstfruits; then they that are Christ's at His 
coming [or presence]. Then cometh the end, 
when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even 



114 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule 
and all authority and power. For He must reign 
till He have put all His enemies under His feet. 
The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. 
For He put all things in subjection under His feet. 
But when He saith, All things are put in subjection, 
it is evident that He is excepted who did subject 
all things unto Him, then shall the Son also Him- 
self be subject to Him that subjected all things 
unto Him, that God may be all in all." Still 
further on, Paul continues, "If there is a natural 
body, there is also a spiritual body." So also it 
is written, "The first man Adam became a living 
soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 
Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but 
that which is natural ; then that which is spiritual. 
The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second 
man is of Heaven. As is the earthy, such also are 
they that are earthy : and as is the heavenly, such 
are they also that are heavenly; and as we have 
borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear 
the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, 
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit 
incorruption. " 

So Paul warns us here that the kingdom is not 
composed of men's corporeal bodies in the first 
place, but in men's Christ-cleansed, obedient souls. 
These bodies of ours are only tabernacles or earthly 
houses; they are peculiar to the circumstance 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 115 

of our earthly career. It is only the spirit or soul 
that is suited for eternal existence; and while 
we may enter the Holy City, or the absolutely 
obedient life, while we are yet in our physical 
bodies, still it is not these, but our spirits, which 
may inherit by attainment. The weaknesses of 
the flesh are very apt to retard our footsteps from 
following the Master, rather than aid them. We 
must therefore conclude that the ideal condition ot 
our hopes must first be accepted by our minds, 
our spirits, our souls, before it can become a 
physical verity, by our united efforts imder Christ 
towards bringing the ideal into the actual amongst 
men. Adam's ideal became degraded by listening 
to the tempter, and he fell and dragged a world of 
souls down with him. We must try to bring this 
ideal back unto the world imtil the poor old earth 
is once more the Garden of God, or Eden, 

Adam's fall brought to us a twofold loss of life, 
loss of spiritual as well as physical continuity of 
existence. After this disaster men could slay one 
another from avarice, hatred, or jealousy. They 
could die of disease or accident or of senile decay. 
For a time, men could live for centuries, but the 
poison of sin developed in its suicidal and murder- 
ous mission, until disease became general and old 
age crept nearer to the natal day of man, imtil now 
for long years it has been a rare thing for a man to 
reach the one century mark, and disease and de- 
generacy are so almost universal, that few there be 



ii6 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

who reach even the *' threescore years and ten." 
Truly, now the good and wicked suffer alike from 
this great disaster of our first parents. But to-day 
men are looking into those matters which affect our 
health and longevity, and are trying to introduce 
various schemes which are hoped to improve the 
general standard of health of our people, and there- 
by add to the length of our earthly days. This is 
plainly the duty of those who have the kind of 
wisdom suited for the service. But we must set 
about this work from the only legitimate and per- 
manently successful standpoint, or all our efforts 
will be futile. Jehovah said to the people, through 
Isaiah, "Come now, and let us reason together: 
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, 
they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedi- 
ent, ye shall eat of the good of the land: but if 
ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the 
sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. " 
Jesus came to us. He gave us a most kindly invita- 
tion to seek helpful direction from Him. He says 
to us, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my 
yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your 
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is 
light." If we reason with our Father about 
human affairs and our personal service. He will 
teach us that it lies in the sphere of helpfulness to 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 117 

humanity in general, and unfortunate humanity in 
particular. He will refer us to His One Perfected 
Son and instruct us to listen to Him and to learn 
of Him, to walk so closely allied with Him, that 
we shall be able to catch the word of inspired in- 
struction at all times. This security from grave 
error will give us that peace and rest of soul that is 
desirable in difficult service. Then our efforts will 
not be abortive or futile, but always timely and 
successful. The Father has said of this Perfected 
Son, through Isaiah, "Behold my servant, whom 
I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth : 
I have put my Spirit upon Him; He shall bring 
forth Justice to the Gentiles. He will not fail nor 
be discouraged, till He have set justice in the 
earth. " So we shall find our greatest service to be 
to help in all ways possible to bring justice and 
righteousness on earth. And we shall learn of our 
Redeemer — if we walk closely with Him — ^just 
what we had better attempt, and when and how we 
should do it Our reason testifies to each of us 
that no kingdom could be a heavenly one without 
the reign of absolute justice in all directions. 
Justice, worked out analytically, is foimd to em- 
brace all nobleness of character and conduct one 
towards another, and is the chief essential quality 
by means of which all our disease and pain shall be 
ultimately removed, by the removal of all causes of 
disease, accident, and sinning. And it will also 
remove the tendency to decadence of our people, 



ii8 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

whether it be from luxury or want. In kindness it 
includes our helpful love one towards another. It 
includes the tender mercy of our Creator, in that 
though we sin we are yet existent ; and it includes 
the repeated warnings against these sinnings, and 
the ultimate punishment that shall be ours, if we do 
not repent and turn from sin to the obedient life. 
It is a wonder that we do not try to obtain more of 
the blessings which result from the life of loving 
obedience. When Christ, the Blessed One, is 
allowed full control of all our ideals, Christendom 
will be "a Joy" and "there shall be heard in her 
no more the voice of weeping and the voice of 
crying." Oh, some one may object, that means 
when we go to Heaven. Does it, think you? 
Listen to Jehovah, ** There shall be no more thence 
an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not 
filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred 
years old and the sinner being a hundred years old 
shall be accursed." Surely this refers to length 
of earthly life. If we read a little farther on in this 
hopeful chapter we shall see that it foretells a most 
desirable earthly condition brought about by 
human justice worked out in general lovingkind- 
ness upon earth. This means happiness in long 
life, satisfaction in our labour, contentment, kindly 
associations, God hearing our requests before we 
make them; it means even the animals becoming 
subdued and peaceful by the Spirit of Peace and 
goodwill. Do we want this to become a reality, or 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 119 

are present conditions better for our happiness? 
It has been objected that the development of the 
race from an educational and hygienic standpoint 
produces much spiritual good amongst them. This 
objection is a subterfuge of Satan's ingenuity to 
blind men's minds and hearts to their obligations 
one towards another. We must watch for these 
subterfuges of Satan, for they often have some 
resemblance to truth and we know that : 

A lie which is wholly a lie 

May be met with and fought outright, 

But a Ue which is half a truth 

Is a difiEerent matter to fight. 

We know that pain and suffering long continued 
often seems to ripen the afflicted one into a saintly 
patience and fulness of trust in God's goodness, 
and often develops the spirit of thoughtful con- 
sideration for others. That is the true half of this 
Satanic subterfuge. The half which is wholly a 
lie is, that any of us can allow another to suffer 
needless pain, or endure want, or lack of useful 
and elevating knowledge, which we are in a posi- 
tion to prevent or alleviate; and at the same time 
be heirs of the Kingdom, either in this phase of 
being or the next. God never promised a future 
glorified state to a selfish soul. The integrity of 
the Kingdom of Heaven demands that selfishness 
be excluded. Had the Scriptures been silent we 
should see this to be true from lessons that we have 



120 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

learned while here in our kindergarten days. Is 
not selfishness at the root of all our troubles in our 
toy empires, nations, and states, in all our object- 
lesson experiences here on earth? Is it so strange 
that the good God should design to let us have 
also one unselfish day before we start on our eternal 
journey? just to finish our object lesson; just to 
prove to us that it profits a man or nation to lead 
the unselfish holy life; that the pleasures derived 
from selfishness have too much of the stinging of 
hate, jealousy, and revenge in them to be truly 
enjoyable or to bring unifrom happiness. 

Citizenship in the Holy City, or our last object- 
lesson day of happy obedience, is attained by those 
who are ready to forfeit all earthly gain or attain- 
ment, in order to obtain the one eternal benefit. 
These are knights of the Holy Grail. If we join 
ourselves to Christ's companionship we shall drink 
of His cup. Can ye drink of My cup? the Saviour 
inquires of all seeking disciples. In this testing 
time shall we be ready to answer. We are able? 
God grant that we be found willing and able to 
stand this test when our particular and personal 
hour of trial comes, as it must, to each of us. We 
are so conscious of our shameful deficiency in 
courage, in regard to the matter of standing up 
bravely for that which we know to be the wider 
law of God, that we may well shrink from this 
inquiry by Christ. We too often think of the City 
of God as a fanatical dream, and the quest of the 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 121 

Holy Grail as too quixotic and ideal for a modem 
mind. We think it all belongs to the clanging 
mailed warriors of the unbalanced middle ages; 
forgetting alike the Cup of Communion and Cup 
of Vinegar. We too much take the one as impos- 
sible and the later as our licence. Some of us 
deny that we may walk yoked with Him, learning 
of Him; but we hold fast to the wrested doctrine 
of the Atonement as though Christ's cup on the 
Cross saved us in our sins ; making a holy Sacrifice 
or Offering into a hurtful security which gives 
licence to sin. The wresting of this one point has 
been the spiritual poison of Christendom. God 
forbid that we should undervalue or underrate 
the great Gift of Christ Jesus to us ; but God forbid 
also that we use it for licence to sin, thinking that 
an historical and theological belief in Christ's 
offering of Himself for us, without obedience, will 
bring us life eternal. It is plainly seen from 
whence this false idea came. It came from the 
same source as the mockings over the second com- 
ing of the Redeemer. And both ideas unite to 
produce the same awful result. The one gives 
licence to sin on the ground that Christ's death on 
the Cross saves you — that is, if you believe that 
it does; the other laughs at the idea of Christ's 
coming to judge the world, as though it had origi- 
nated in some fanatic's disordered mind, instead 
of in God's Word. The two added together make 
Christendom just what it is to-day. James tells 



122 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

us that *'the demons also believe and shudder. 
But wilt thou know, O man, that faith apart from 
works is barren." And Peter warns us regarding 
the other sin thus, "In the last days mockers 
shall come with mockery, walking after their own 
lusts and saying. Where is the promise of His 
coming [or presence]? For from the day that 
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they 
were from the beginning of the creation." After 
further exhortations he testifies thus, ''But accord- 
ing to His promise, we look for new heavens and 
a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
John, in his vision, saw a new heaven and a new 
earth, and the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, 
coming down out of heaven, and God Himself was 
with men. And He saw God wiping away every 
tear from the eyes of the children of men. He saw 
Him in infinite and tender compassion relieving all 
pain of body, mind, and spirit. Putting all this 
evidence together we are obliged to conclude, that 
all this was inspired by God acting on the minds 
and wills of the people. Christ's self-confessed 
mission was to save the people from their sins and 
certainly not in their sins. If we will but let Him 
He will send His ministry of angels to assist this 
regenerating work in our souls, which shall be 
proven by our reformation in the human affairs, 
systems, and usages, which now cause so much, 
misery. Christ said, "Whosoever will, " therefore 
we must will to be a regenerated, refoimed people. 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 123 

He will in no wise cast us out from the compan- 
ionship of Himself and His co-workers. That 
obedient activity under Christ's rule is not only- 
scriptural but scientific and reasonable, is easily 
shown by a simple analogy with ordinary matters. 
For instance, a young person may believe that a 
course in a college would save him from being an 
uneducated person in after life. But of what 
avail is his belief if he does not put himself under 
the tuition of this college ? His belief is of no use 
to him, it is only a reproach to him, if he does not 
make use of the opportunity. He may decide to 
make use of it, and may proceed to become an 
inmate of the institution of learning. But even 
then if he does not apply himself faithfully to its 
curriculum he will not benefit by it, he will not 
meet his examinations with honour. It will be, as 
before, only a reproof to him, a lost opportunity. 
His belief in the power of this institution to give 
instruction is useless, or worse, a reproof, unless he 
absorb that which it represents to him. We might 
take an instance from a man desiring a beautiful 
and convenient home. An architect may skilfully 
design it and the man may believe it to be his 
ideal home. Still it is of no use to the man; it 
exists only in the imagination. A builder may 
build it, and the man may fully approve of its 
design, and be satisfied with the precise execution 
of the design by the builder. He may bring 
admiring friends to see it. He thinks that it is 



124 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

his home ; but it is not his home imtil he occupies 
it. He believes it to be his, but he must incor- 
porate it into his family existence before it becomes 
his dearly beloved home. So, we may know of 
Christ's efficacy to lead us into the higher life 
from perfection unto perfection; but if we do not 
walk so closely with Him that we learn of Him, 
this knowledge is useless to us. We may pretend 
to walk in the Christian faith, but if w^e do not 
learn of Him, and absorb His teaching into our 
being so that it manifests itself in our conduct one 
toward another, it is worse than useless to us, it is 
a reproof for our wasted opportunity. We must 
believe in Him, we must walk with Him, we must 
absorb His curriculum so thoroughly that we shall 
manifest His ideals in our lives amongst our fellows. 
The belief that Christ is designing a Home for us is 
not sufficient to give that Home to us. The fact 
that He builds it and gives it to us, by His offering 
of Himself, does not assure us that it is ours. // 
assures us that it can he ours, but that is all. We 
must consent to occupy it. It is only occupied by 
citizens who live the sinless life. This is the 
reason that our dear Home, the Holy City, is not 
yet ours. We are not pure enough to be willing 
to occupy it. We had better seek earnestly to 
learn our lessons quickly and thoroughly, so as to 
shorten the time before we may occupy our long- 
hoped-for Home of the Believing Soul. 

The Gospel of the Kingdom is a most unpopular 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 125 

subject for discussion among the great majority 
of modern religionists; it has never been a very 
welcome theme in the erring Church; and the 
Church has always been more or less an erring 
one. Christ came to the Jewish Church preaching 
the Gospel, but they could not bear it, and they 
crucified Him. And ever since has her successor 
been crucifying Him afresh and putting Him to an 
open shame. But this Gospel of the Kingdom is 
still waiting in majestic patience for the day of 
its fulfilment by its complete entrance into the 
hearts of men. When v/e invite the Kingdom of 
God into our hearts it proceeds quietly but utterly 
to displace all evil in our nature and conduct, by a 
regenerated nature and a resultant state of holiness. 
We had better each examine our hearts and find 
out which Master has undisputed occupation. We 
must ask ourselves a few questions regarding our 
attitude towards God and man, and this will assist 
us to judee for ourselves of the occupancy of our 
hearts and minds. We may select a list from the 
description of those things which exclude us from 
the Holy City, and also from the life eternal. Do 
we/mr that God may fail us? Do we /ear popular 
opinion, or any other thing which we are not brave 
enough to endure for Christ*s sake? Do we believe 
what He has taught us in His world? Do we be- 
lieve that He has promised Life for obedience and 
Death for wilful breaking of the Law? Are we in 
any way abominable persons? Do we, though 



126 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

fairly decent, allow all sorts of abominations to 
exist without much opposition from us? Do we 
murder? Or do we assist at hastening the death, 
through weakness, want, or accident, of any per- 
sons whom we might strengthen, supply their 
needs, or make secure from accident ; but whom we 
let go to their doom from selfish withholding of the 
necessary means of alleviation or the removal of the 
cause? Do we misuse natural and holy office, m 
either our physical or spiritual nature and func- 
tions? Do we allow such in others to continue 
unchecked? Are we sorcerers, or do we use undue 
influence over our fellows to their injur>^? Do we 
compel them, through circumstances or tyrannical 
coercion or threat, to think as we wish on public 
questions, or perhaps cast a vote against their 
conscience through fear of us? Do we submit to 
this injustice ourselves through fear of these un- 
holy influences? Do any of us ever tell that which 
is a lie? Do we ever act a lie, or allow a lie to pass 
from another unchallenged? No need to ask 
whether any of these sins touch our conscience, for 
few of us but would plead guilty to some measure 
of guilt in all of these. Or to take another con- 
demning list: are we filled with unrighteousness y 
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, mur- 
der, strife, deceit, malignity: are we whisperers, 
backbiters, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, 
inventors of evil things, unmerciful? Do we, know- 
ing that these things exclude us from the Kingdom, 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 127 

do them ourselves and consent with them that 
practise them? These two Hsts might be supple- 
mented by others, but they are quite sufficient 
on which to found a general purifying movement in 
our own hearts and in the world of men, and will be 
found inclusive enough for us to be written as 
weighed or wanting, when the hand of our Judge 
is seen to be writing on the wall of our heart as 
men and as nations. It is the pure in heart that 
shall see God, and not the unclean; it is the poor 
in spirit that inherits the Kingdom, and not the 
haughty. By our two testine lists we find that it 
is not our cry of '* Lord, Lord, " by which we shall 
gain admittance to the Kingdom ; but it is by per- 
fected character, matured into thought and con- 
duct : and the thought and conduct have for their 
field of operation the daily ordinary intercourse, 
commercial, political, social, and religious, which 
go to make up the common experience of human 
life. One does not expect a vessel of water to be 
pure and clean after emptying poisonous filth into 
it. Neither does reason lead us to expect a holy 
State to exist wherein is emptied the filth of hate, 
greed, covetousness, envy, pride, fear of one 
another, and lies. And who can deny but that 
these traits of character are not more general 
than their opposites, the redeeming ones? These 
are love, generosity, in honour preferring one an- 
other, humility, frank trust in one another, and 
truthfulness. Everything is made up of its com- 



128 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

ponent parts, and why not the holy State to be? 
If you could by any chance transport a person to 
High Heaven, who hated, envied, and lied, as a 
fixed habit of character, he would not really be in 
Heaven, as he would be accompanied by his own 
Satanic presence. His location or environment 
could not bring his unhappy soul into a true citizen- 
ship of Heaven. 

Our spiritual service towards the Kingdom is 
placed or staged in the arena of our human char- 
acter and existence. Christ gladly and tenderly 
saves a willing soul though its body be starving 
and naked. He does not require our gift of a loaf 
or a garment in order to take an unfortunate child 
of distress into His arms of safety. He can trans- 
port such an one Home to a happier condition 
quite without our paltry efforts — when we grudge 
them so. But these seemingly paltry efforts of 
ours are vital to our own salvation. I pray God, 
for the Kingdom's sake, that very soon He will 
grant His Light to enter men's hearts enough for 
them to see and realize this vital truth. True, 
many do now see it, but we earnestly beg in 
Christ's Name that it be more generally empha- 
sized by those who perceive it. We should then 
from the very instinct of self-preservation direct 
our united efforts towards the one main issue of 
civilization, that of earnestly endeavouring to 
raise the standard of character and physical con- 
dition of mankind in general. Our desires would 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 129 

become attuned to this aim and our efforts would 
soon tend towards the general good of the human 
unit, rather than, as it now does, to the self- 
aggrandisement of a vain and haughty few. This 
self-destructive attitude, which now obtains to 
such great degree, must be very painful to our 
Saviour and His Executive, as they walk about 
amongst us unseen, looking carefully into our 
methods of operation in the various fields of human 
endeavour. All our thoughts as well as actions 
are an open page before these. Unless we are 
striving to be perfect we shall feel terribly hu- 
miliated to think of this. The presence of these 
witnesses, when we become aware of them, should 
make us very earnest in our endeavour, if we use 
their presence as a support, rather than as a fear; 
we should remember that the evidence which these 
are collecting for or against us, is based on those 
two all-inclusive laws, viz., love to God and love 
to men. Our love to God is measured by our 
love towards each other. Our love towards 
each other is measured by the word of Christ 
our Judge, which says, ''All things therefore 
whatsoever ye would that men should do unto 
you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is 
the law and the prophets. " That is not an un- 
reasonable demand, is it? I truly think that our 
ideal for humanity has already reached up to 
this though our conduct does not fulfil our ideal. 
But that we do already acknowledge it to be 



130 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

the just Law, is full of hope for the future of our 
people. 

I think that our Saviour feels all the pain and 
want of His unfortunate children; actually feels 
it, as a loving mother feels the pain of her young 
suffering child, only a hundredfold more sensi- 
tively. It is of no use coming to the door of His 
abode and saying. Lord, Lord, we did wonders in 
Thy name. He will ask of us. Why did you starve 
Me, kill Me, oppress Me, allow Me to remain de- 
graded when ye should have raised Me, allow Me 
to become degenerate from want and sinful con- 
dition ? and most of all. Why gave ye Me no spirit- 
ual food, or true spiritual education ? If we begin 
a long harangue of excuse saying. When saw we 
Thee in these ill conditions? He will say to us. 
When ye broke My mother heart, so illtreating My 
children, ye did it unto Me. Ye caimot enter in; 
I never knew you. Go to your master; Mammon 
is your Lord, not I. The little ones shall come to 
Me; they are Mine. 

We find that Jesus went about in all Galilee 
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the 
Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of 
disease and all manner of sickness among the 
people. If caring for the body, mental and physi- 
cal, as well as spiritual, is not a part, and an 
essential part, of the Gospel of the Kingdom, with 
all reverence to the kindly Christ, we must inquire 
Why, when His time was so short, did He not 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 131 

confine Himself to preaching the intricate but 
awfully essential doctrines of dogmatic Christian- 
ity? Why did He not confine Himself to the es- 
sential tenets of the Catholic Faith, so that we 
might believe accurately as units of one whole, 
that should be His Holy Bride, The Lamb's Wife? 
It seems to be a dreadful mistake for Christ Jesus 
to make ; and a terrible loss to our race that He so 
neglected the main issue of His mission. If He 
had but sought to set all these brain-splitting and 
contentious doctrines in perfect order for our souls' 
security, we might have succeeded in being more 
dominant and tyrannical religionists even than we 
have been. But is dogmatic tyranny the main 
office of the Christian Faith? Do modern men 
recognize it as the essential value of Christianity? 
Does the modern and more clearly enlightened 
mind tend to simple or to dogmatic religion ? We 
may also with some degree of reasonableness ask 
the question, From whence received we this Faith 
of ours? Who originated it? For whom was it 
introduced? And for what given result was it to 
be followed? 

We believe that God the Father promised man- 
kind that He would send to them One Who should 
teach — a profound set of dogmas? No! One Who 
should bring them back to a state of happy obedi- 
ence. So we may believe that the kindly Father 
sent His One Perfect Son to us with the office and 
message of our salvation. When this One came 



132 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

to mankind, the Father acknowledged Him as His 
Son and told mankind to listen to His word. Then 
we might well presume that Jesus Christ was the 
Originator, under the Father, of our Faith. * * Hear 
ye Him," the Father commanded us. It must 
have been brought as ''glad tidings" for all, be- 
cause whosoever will may come, and ultimately 
every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall con- 
fess. God says, ''Look unto Me and be ye saved 
all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is 
none else. By Myself have I sworn, the word is 
gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and 
shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall 
bow, every tongue shall swear." So the saving 
faith which God sent to us through His Son was 
sent to all, that is certain. Then we come to the 
last of these questions; for what given result was 
it to be followed? As far as we can read the evi- 
dence in God's Word concerning this question we 
see that there is to be one result only. This result 
is often mistaken for two, because it is divided into 
two, by location and circumstance: but the result 
of adherence to our faith is really but one benefit 
to the soul. In location, we first occupy an earthly 
house, we tabernacle in this wilderness, called 
Human Life. Afterwards, we pass on into another 
location, we may suppose — at all events it is an- 
other circumstance of housing, etc., as Paul testi- 
fies. Of this wilderness life we know something, of 
the next we know almost nothing. It is both amus- 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 133 

ing and pathetic to hear longing souls describing 
the circumstances of the heavenly life, which is ours 
after physical death. We have heard wonderful 
inventions of the homesick soul regarding our 
future existence ; we have listened more with a tear 
than a smile when we remember how very little, 
almost nothing, God has told us regarding this 
Afterwards of our souls. Nearly all of that from 
which we draw an^^ approximate knowledge of it, 
is from illustrative passages and not actual descrip- 
tion. So we come to think of our lives as though 
they had two phases: the one earthly, the other 
heavenly. The earthly one is so troublesome and 
we find it so difficult to be good therein, that we 
come to let things continue as they are, without 
much opposition, and sit in the hopeful security 
that some day we shall go to Heaven where there is 
no sin or trouble; and the reason given is that 
Christ died for our sinning and His death reconciles 
God to condone our sinning. God forbid that we 
should lose hope in the efficacy of His generous 
sacrifice. God forbid that we should lessen the 
hope of Heaven in one weak brother or sister. 
But God forbid also that we should forget what the 
Originator of our Faith taught us. I cannot see 
the scriptural grounds on which the theory is 
built, that some miracle of holiness shall befall us 
at physical decease. I find that we must fight the 
good fight of faith, if we wish for the crown of life. 
The Kingdom within is the Heaven to which a 



134 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

soul attains; its location and circumstance may be 
here and now, or it may be in the after Hfe. It 
must be, if we expect eternal life. I do not see 
how men came to think honestly that it did not 
matter much what our lives were here, as regards 
character and conduct, because all things earthly 
did not signify. Whence came this delusion? 
Was it from Christ? If not, from whom came it? 
What was the Gospel of the Kingdom as taught by 
Christ Jesus? Nothing else written by man or 
demon matters. And so we sadly complain that 
if these controversial doctrines are the essentials 
of this Gospel, Why, O why, did not He make 
them plain instead of going about doing good, and 
begging of the people to be good and kind one 
toward the other? 

We find that He ever hastened to relieve suffer- 
ing and sickness and empowered His disciples to 
do the same. And yet He claimed and maintained 
the dignity of His Messiahship. He found that 
these two fimctions must be united in His Person 
and Mission, He must relieve the suffering of 
humanity, on earth, and must lead it into the sin- 
less eternal life. He was a Surety to the Father 
that He would save us from our sins. "For this 
came I into the world, " was His sole claim. Then 
helping humanity out of its suffering and sinfulness 
is the only Christlike work that we can help Him 
by doing. In His last word to us He urges this 
theme of service towards purity and freedom of the 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 135 

whole world from suffering. We are really cow- 
ards when we want to slip off to our easy and pleas- 
ant Heaven, because we believe that Christ died 
for us, forgetting His real offering and mission, 
and leaving all the work towards the regeneration 
of our Race to others. If such cowardly souls were 
allowed to enter into the presence of the suffering 
Messiah, how would they feel in this Great Self- 
sacrificing Presence? What shall be His verdict? 
He says, "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward 
is with me, to render to every man according*' — 
as he holds a correct view of the many intricate 
doctrines which man has interwoven into the 
fabric which we term Christianity — is this what 
He said? No, but only this, "As his work is," 
At another time He took a small child in His arms 
and told His audience that of such was the King- 
dom. Then to purity of purpose, and self-sacri- 
ficing service in lessening the suffering and want 
amongst the children of men, our neighbours, we 
must add childlike trustfulness and simplicity. 
But what if a small child or childlike person should 
not quite correctly understand the doctrinal mazes 
through which the soul is supposed to pass on its 
way to the eternal Palace of the King? We do 
not know, we cannot tell, as the King did not 
direct us to pass through any such mazes in order 
to enter His Palace. To whom shall we appeal as 
the highest authority? Christ's teaching and 
commands seem to be too simple to weave into 



136 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

our beloved dogmas, to be in keeping with our 
modem culture, to be truly acceptable to us. He 
certainly should have left us something more 
erudite, which scholarly men of our advanced 
modern day, with philosophically trained minds, 
could accept with dignity, and which should be in 
keeping with their culture. Really, to retain a 
paganish, pseudo-philosophical, medieval, or mod- 
em dogmatic religious belief, I do not perceive 
how we can consent to, or accept the simple sav- 
ing teaching and example of the lowly Jesus. Per- 
haps His apostles will suit our mood better. True, 
Paul adds some rather mystifying utterances, if 
we have a preference for mysticism, to his main 
teaching; and he knew much that it was not timely 
to tell us. But no one, except Christ, urges purity 
of purpose and conduct as essential for salvation 
or the Kingdom, more than St. Paul. All the 
inspired apostles of the Gospel of the Kingdom 
unite in this. True they each amplify this theme, 
and fill in our vision of the mission of the Saviour, 
but not one of them detracts from the simplicity 
of the teaching of the Great Leader. It was left 
to the semi-paganzied early and medieval Church 
to produce a series of self-termed apostles who 
wove uninspired doctrinal intricacies around the 
few essentials which Christ Himself and His true 
apostles taught; until these simple truths became 
wellnigh strangled in the hateful embrace of the 
struggling creeds; and all the while Christ hung 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 137 

crucified afresh and was constantly put to an open 
shame; not this time by the Jewish Church, but by 
the Church which was called by His name, the 
Christian Church. Yet some few there always 
were who were simple enough and great enough 
to escape strangulation of soul and make efforts 
to release their fellows. He came unto His own, 
and they that were His own received Him not. 
But as man}'' as received Him, to them gave He the 
right to become children of God. These form the 
grandest procession that has ever passed down 
the hurrying centuries. And still the few, nay, 
almost the many, hasten to join this ever widening 
coltunn of souls who shall form the star-lit crown 
of our patient King. As Carlyle says, "All mar- 
tyrs and noble men and gods are of one grand host, 
immeasurable, marching ever forward since the 
beginning of the world. The enormous all-con- 
quering flame-crowned Host, noble every soldier 
in it ; sacred and alone noble. Let him who is not 
of it hide himself; let him tremble for himself. 
These are they," he most truly tells us, ''who 
strive to make humanity less accursed, that they 
may be unstained by deformities, by wasted tears, 
or heart's blood of men, or any defilements of the 
Pit. So that man has arisen and shall rise, from 
the low places of this earth, very literally into 
divine heavens. " Were it not more noble of each 
of us to hasten to join this immortal throng, which 
is ever marching onward in helpfulness toward 



138 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

the ideal of the soul, the City of God, than to be- 
long to the Cainish, indifferent, though vastly 
more numerous host, which can never enter into 
the blessed state wherein dwells only that which 
is righteous? ''Let him tremble for himself," 
who decides to follow in the armies of the degener- 
ate children of Cain. 

Perhaps we are mistaken in our view that the 
elevation of the human brotherhood is essential 
to the establishment and security of Christ*s King- 
dom on earth. We had better as wise persons 
examine the evidence of the best authority on the 
subject. The Scriptures teach us that the terms 
Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, Holy City, 
New Jerusalem, and the complete reign of Christ 
on earth are identical in meaning, and therefore 
may be used interchangeably. This being so, we 
may conclude that Christ Himself is the One to 
consult as highest authority on the subject of 
entrance into His Kingdom. No one has a right to 
detract from its meaning, or add to the few essen- 
tial truths which He taught, nor can any one do so 
with safety to his soul ; Christ so declared as a last 
warning to us from out His hidden Throne, and 
the Father commanded us, ''Hear ye Him. " 

In the wonderful Sermon on the Mount, He very 
fully explains to us, that nothing in the world 
can bring about entrance into His kingdom but 
righteous kindness. The old disciplinary teaching 
of justice, an eye for an eye, a life for a life, would 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 139 

never bring about His Regime. Nothing but a 
forgiving spirit, "In honour preferring one an- 
other," of man being willing to give his life, not 
only for a friend, but for an enemy also. Jesus 
also teaches us that unless our religion is of a holier 
type than the hypocritical formality and theologi- 
cal wranglings of the Scribes and Pharisees, we can 
in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Cer- 
tainly not, as this envy and strife would exclude the 
light of Heaven from us by its darkening presence. 
At another time, when explaining some parables, 
which He had spoken, to His disciples, He said, 
** As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned 
with fire; so shall it be in the end of the world 
[or better, the consummation of the age]. The 
Son of man shall send forth His angels and they 
shall gather out of His kingdom all things that 
cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and 
shall cast them into the furnace of fire. Then 
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
Kingdom of the Father." Then He adds this 
most significant phrase, ''He that hath ears let 
him hear. " I fear many of us have spiritual ears 
to hear but do not choose to listen to the divine 
message, but do the rather listen to the alluring 
whispering of the world. Again we are told that 
His disciples rebuked those who brought little 
children to be blest by Him, but He instead re- 
buked the disciples, telling them that to such 
belonged His Kingdom. They had, not long 



140 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

previously, been rebuked for contending as to who 
should be greatest in the expected Kingdom. He 
told them, "Except ye turn and become as little 
children, ye shall in no wise enter into the King- 
dom. " These disciples who strangely forget their 
position as followers of Jesus, did not themselves 
desire to prefer one another, but the rather to 
precede one another. This attitude would bar 
them out of the Kingdom. There is food here for 
much thought and sincere introspection. We 
learn that a young man who had great possessions 
asked our Lord, ''What good thing shall I do that 
I may have eternal life?" The Lord told him to 
keep the commandments, especially those regard- 
ing the attitude of men toward men. The young 
man replied, "All these things have I observed, 
what lack I yet?" Mark tells us that Jesus look- 
ing upon him loved him, and no wonder that He 
did love so upright a young man. But Jesus 
probed a bit too deep for the young man's soul- 
willingness for self-sacrifice. He said to the seeker 
after life eternal, "If thou wouldst be perfect, go, 
sell that which thou hast and give to the poor and 
thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come fol- 
low Me. " But alas, he went away sorrowful. He 
could not empty his heart of its beloved idols, high- 
ly moral though Jesus found him to be. Jesus 
emphasized this object lesson thus, "Verily I say 
unto you, it is hard for a rich man to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." Here our Lord identifies 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 141 

a state of perfection with eternal life and with 
entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. This should 
give us serious thought, if we consider that theo- 
logical belief will save us alone ; that to believe that 
Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Messiah, is the 
only kind of belief that is required of us. We find 
evidence that a saving belief is an obeying belief. 
We must believe in the practical phase of His 
mission as well as the doctrinal, else the latter will 
avail us but little. We are taught frequently, and 
we cannot repeat too often, that He Himself 
claimed to save us from our sins and not in our 
sins. This makes it quite clear that to be sure 
that we are being saved, we must be sure that we 
are earnestly trying to stop sinning. This is the 
vital point of the gospel of the Kingdom. The Jewish 
religionists certainly believed that their Messiah 
was to come soon to them ; they doubtless believed 
all prophecy concerning Him, as they understood 
it. Yet Jesus tells them that, "The publicans and 
harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. 
For John came unto you in the way of righteous- 
ness and ye believed him not; but the publicans 
and harlots believed him; and ye when ye saw it 
did not even repent yourselves afterward that ye 
might believe him." Here, our Lord connects 
the state of repentance with that of belief, but as 
preceding it. This also is a vital point in connex- 
ion with our fitness for the Kingdom. I confess 
that it strikes one at first as though the correct 



142 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

order were reversed by our Lord, if we do not 
pause and consider well. Our Lord had the Divine 
Gift of being able to say a few simple words of 
instruction which neither time nor controversy can 
overthrow. It is one of the surest proofs of His 
Divine nature. If we pause to consider this sup- 
posed reversed order, we shall be brought, by the 
Spirit of Truth, to see that until we are in a re- 
pentant condition, we do not wish to be perfect 
nor do we believe it to be the highest wisdom to be 
righteous. We are more inclined to believe in 
great worldly advantage as being the highest good. 
After we have come to see the evil effects of sinning 
in ourselves and others, we come to change our 
standard of what is really the highest good. We 
see that our aims have been destructive and un- 
clean. We are ashamed of ourselves, we repent 
and are anxious to become perfected by some pro- 
cess. We are then in a state of mind and soul to 
see Christ in His true character. While in this 
humble and hopeful state of mind, we come to 
believe that not only is our Saviour's teaching, as 
recorded, an historically correct rendering from 
His lips; but we come to believe so absolutely in 
its perfecting qualities, that we would willingly 
adopt it in our ideals and conduct even if there were 
no Christ. 

I think this was the inner meaning of Christ 
when He begged His hearers to believe for the 
very work's sake. The work of bringing perfected 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 143 

souls into the Kingdom was dearer to Him than 
any personal servile adulation to Himself from 
followers who ignored His true mission. He 
always put His mission before His personal ad- 
vantage, aye, even to the shameful Cross. He 
seldom spoke of His Own personality : never, unless 
truth were at stake. His call to the people was 
ever and always to repent that they might be 
forgiven and then work earnestly towards the 
perfection of all things, themselves included. 
The Jewish religionists were offended that He 
ignored their vexatious doctrinal themes and 
insisted on preaching with such power the simple 
doctrine of righteousness: they marvelled at His 
ability and wisdom and feared Him when He did 
not insist on the old formalities which were so 
dear to their palsied souls. They asked, "How 
knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 
But Jesus said to them, ' ' My teaching is not Mine, 
but His that sent Me. If any man willeth to do 
His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it 
is of God, or whether I speak from Myself. " So 
Jesus told these mere ritualists that one must be 
willing to obey before he is in a condition to know 
of the teaching. This is a warning to contentious 
persons. If we wish to be able to perceive the 
Truth we must obey that part of truth which we 
are already sure of. We cannot know the intricate 
until we obey the simple. This is doubtless why 
He was so severe on the dogmatists. He accused 



144 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

them of shutting the Kingdom against men and 
entering not themselves. Religious wrangles, or 
wrangles of any sort, will shut us out of Heaven. 
These delighted in religious argument, and en- 
couraged the spirit of dissension in the people, thus 
shutting out Heaven from themselves and the 
common people. And Jesus pronounces seven 
woes unto this class of persons, which we would do 
wisely to read and mark to-day. His parting 
words, as recorded by Matthew, are ''All authority 
hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. 
Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the na- 
tions, baptizing them into the name of the Father 
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever I command you; 
and lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the 
consummation of the age." When modern 
preachers try to teach intricate doctrines instead of 
the teaching of Jesus Christ, they go outside of 
their authorized mission, and cannot expect His 
Presence or approval to remain with them. Such 
preachers must be classed with those of old whom 
Jesus so bitterly denounced. These do not preach 
The Gospel of the Kingdom, but rather tend to 
shut it out from longing humanity. We rejoice 
that this kind of preaching is becoming more rare 
as time goes on. 

If we refer to the account given by Mark, we 
find that after Jesus had been subjected to the 
temptations in the wilderness, in which He had 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 145 

been luringly offered all the kingdoms of the world 
by Satan, and had stedfastly refused all his bland- 
ishments, advice, and bargainings, and after John 
was delivered up to these haters of sound preach- 
ing, He came into Galilee preaching the gospel 
of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the 
Kingdom of God is at hand ; repent ye and believe 
in the gospel [good tidingsj." Again we see the 
call to repentance as preceding that to belief. 
This writer gives us an account of Jesus' triumphal 
entry into Jerusalem, in which the people pro- 
claimed Him as King of David's line and He 
rebuked them not, but rather seemed to expect 
and accept the title. These people cried, ''Ho- 
sanna ; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
Lord: Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, 
the kingdom of our father David : Hosanna in the 
highest." Perhaps this people shouted better 
than they realized; but they did not seem to con- 
sider that the Messianic Kingdom was to be an 
ordinary one; they may not have understood the 
meaning of their own enthusiasm; but the Son of 
David accepted their homage and the crown of 
their approval. On entering the city of Jerusalem 
He at once began to endeavour to cleanse the 
Temple from the money changers, etc., and said 
to them, *'Is not it written. My house shall be 
called a house of prayer for all the nations? but 
ye have made it a den of robbers; and [for this] 
the chief priests and scribes sought how they might 

zo 



146 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

destroy Him." So, as was foretold, He was de- 
spised and rejected of men, or at least by those 
whose one office in life was to be looking for Him 
and to be preparing the people in holiness for this 
unique and universal coming event; instead of 
which they were a band of a ''Wall Street" specu- 
lating character, or something that was closely 
allied to it. If there is no lesson in this account 
which can have any bearing on the great organized 
Christian Church to-day, taken as a whole, then 
we must pass it over; but we feel assured that the 
Church will experience some stings from a guilty 
conscience on careful self-examination. God grant 
the too worldly Church the much required gift of 
prayerful introspection. The Church must be 
made to conform with its prophetic description, 
when God says, ''My house shall be called a house 
of prayer for all the nations. " He is in His Temple 
to-day examining into the methods of the Church. 
It is high time for a very careful plan of intro- 
spection to be carried out in our boasted Christen- 
dom. Is it not time now for the "full grain in the 
ear"? Is the fruit now ready for the gathering? 
When time has matured His plans. He will reap 
and He will gather and separate. God's plans 
always mature in time. Christ was born just 
when the wise men followed the leading star to 
where He lay. Had we not better join with these 
wise men? Do we not see the fig-tree telling its 
tale of hope? It is a pity that we hold such a 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 147 

wrong estimate of the worth of some things. 
Jesus asks His hearers, "What doth it profit a man 
to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? For 
what shall a man give in exchange for his life? 
He warns us here that no worldly gain shall pay 
us for the loss of our soul's life. He teaches 
here plainly that there is certainly ultimate death 
for the disobedient soul, and shows us how little 
the world can recompense us for this awful loss of 
opportunity. And He warns us how shortsighted 
it is to be ashamed of true piety, or of Christ Him- 
self. He says of such that He will be ashamed of 
them when He comes in the glory of His Father 
and the Holy Angels. He also taught that a sin- 
ning, rebellious Church need not expect the power 
which belongs only to His Kingdom to rest upon 
it. Nor is there historic or contemporary evidence 
that the Church has been found worthy of or fitted 
for this power, excepting in a few rare instances of 
individual gifts of strange potency. There is much 
amiss with us, as we are not a righteous people, 
except in a small degree, and the gifts of apostolic 
days are not much sought after, or wanted — or so 
it seems. It is said that a poet-diplomat was asked 
if he considered the Christian religion to be a fail- 
ure, and he answered that he did not know, he had 
never seen it tried. This sounds severe, but the 
main thing that matters is, Is it true? Have we, 
any of us, ever as yet seen the religion of Jesus 
Christ tried? If so, Where, and by whom? 



148 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

Obedience to the Royal Law would bring us 
apostolic powers. Paul tells the Corinthians, 
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same 
Spirit." After explaining the unity of the whole 
Church as one in Christ, all suffering together and 
all rejoicing together, he further instructs them 
thus, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and sever- 
ally members thereof, and God has set some in the 
Church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly 
teachers, then miracles [or powers], then gifts of 
healings, helps, governments or [wise counsel], 
divers kinds of tongues. Are all Apostles? Are 
all Prophets? Are all Teachers? Are all workers 
of Miracles [or powers]? Have all gifts of Heal- 
ing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all inter- 
pret? But desire earnestly the Greater Gifts.*' 
If we read the two following chapters of this epistle 
we shall have some idea of what was expected to be 
general in the Church regarding gifts. We see 
that Paul places first in prominence, apostleship. 
Certainly the Church has not been wanting in 
apostles of Christianity, as the}'' have understood 
it; but have these been a part of Christ's body, 
always teaching what He taught, and only that? 
Or, have they been too much given to teaching 
Scripture wrested into unauthorized doctrine? We 
cannot deny that the Church has had its prophets ; 
or those who received special truths from God and 
gave them forth to the people. Neither can we 
deny that some have claimed, or assumed, a 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 149 

superior knowledge of God's Will, to which they 
were in no wise entitled. Only those whose 
teachings are in direct and absolute unity with 
Christ's own words of teaching can claim this dis- 
tinction ; and there have been some such beautiful 
clear-eyed souls; for this we are thankful. There 
have been many, many teachers in the Church, 
and we must find it to be true of these, that only 
as they taught the simple faith as Christ taught it, 
are they of Christ's body. It is a grave sin to 
teach as a Christian doctrine that which Christ 
or His Apostles never taught. As for miracles or 
powers of healing, I fear that we are almost without 
these gifts. I fear Christ's body sadly needs the 
operation of this gift. Helps and wise counsels 
are, we may suppose, the most widely diffused 
gifts in Christendom. We grant that helpers are 
everywhere plentiful, if not always wisely em- 
ployed. Government is everywhere present, but 
whether this government of wise counsels is 
always in unity with Christ is quite another ques- 
tion. Divers kinds of tongues would to-day as- 
tonish the world, unless they were obtained 
through a seat of learning. So, perhaps our poet- 
diplomat was not so far afield when he said, I do 
not know whether Christianity is a failure or not, 
I have never seen it tried. This matter is not only 
our own affair, but it is of vital importance to the 
non-Christian population of the earth. They, 
many of them, can read our Scriptures, and see 



ISO If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

just what our religion means; they then turn the 
searchlight on our spiritual condition, and smile 
in derision. The bringing of the whole world to 
Christ is delayed by our inefficiency regarding our 
faith. We are the only examples of the power of 
Christ unto salvation ; and a poor example we are. 
We are too apt to forget the vital point in Christian 
doctrine, namely, that the Kingdom of God is 
within the hearts of men, and not in a spectacular 
and showy and tyrannical organization. Neither 
need we look for Christ to come to us in any spec- 
tacular manner. He has warned us not to follow 
after any one who claims to show us the Christ, as 
He was not to be so seen at His second coming. 
He says, *'For as the lightning, when it lighteneth 
out of the one part under the heavens, shineth into 
the other part under the heavens; so shall the 
Son of Man be in His day. " Jesus here seems to 
liken His coming to a great electric and terrifying 
flood of light flashing over the whole earth. Those 
who are sensitive to change of weather know right 
well when a terrifying electric storm is in process 
of development, long before it breaks forth in the 
splendour of its almost irresistible mission! So, 
if we be sensitive to the conditions of the Kingdom 
we shall be quite prepared for the spiritual splen- 
dour of Light which shall be a token of His Pres- 
ence. We had better take Him as a shelter from 
the coming storm. We had better let Him insulate 
us from the destruction which shall accompany 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 151 

His full arrival. Absolute trust in our Saviour, 
and obedience to all His commands and instruc- 
tions, is our only sure insulation from the cleansing 
fires of God. We cannot attain to this safety 
without the ever present guidance and assistance 
of the Holy Spirit, Christ's Executive. If we are 
thus in safety the flashing fires of Christ's ap- 
proaching reign will not dismay us, but will rather 
fill us with the joy of a great hope. We are also 
reminded of Noah's experience. He, believing, 
hastened to protect himself and family from im- 
pending destruction, by obediently doing as he was 
commanded by God. But the masses of the people 
gave no heed and did not prepare, and so were 
drowned. These, probably, considered Noah to 
be insane, or a dreamer. We are reminded that 
"Likewise even as it came to pass in the days of 
Lot ; they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, 
they planted, they builded; but in the day that 
Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brim- 
stone from heaven and destroyed them all: after 
the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son 
of man is revealed. " In both instances the people 
that perished were wicked. They would not 
repent, they did not believe that they were in 
danger, they perished and Christ Jesus said, "After 
the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son 
of man is revealed." The revealing of Christ 
is the time set for this to occur. Our responsi- 
bility is great at the present momentous period. 



152 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

Sodom had been spared if ten righteous men had 
been found in her. We do not know just how 
perilous a situation we may be in to-day ourselves. 
There was another peril of which we were warned 
at this time by our Lord; and it would seem to 
be more like our gravest peril than these two. We 
are told to remember Lot's wife. She believed, 
she came out of Sodom because she believed; but 
she desired to look back, perhaps in longing for 
her own associations. She looked back for some 
reason, and that was her undoing. She turned 
into stone, it is told us. If we are to remember 
this story, it must be that it applies to our Chris- 
tian experience. And is it not easily seen wherein 
the lesson lies ? The professed Christian leaves his 
old standpoint, or the world, and sets out for a 
safer country. He really believes or he would 
remain in the old way. But after adopting the 
Christian religion, and starting to journey heaven- 
ward, he looks back. It is this attempt to pro- 
ceed forward while clinging to and desiring to see 
what is taking place in the old, that turns our 
hearts to stone. We get hard, and wanting in 
receptive sensitiveness. We want to face both 
ways. We want to serve God and Mammon at 
the same time, and the unnatural attempt hardens 
us to our eternal injury. Our obedience in our 
forward walking is our surety. John the Baptist 
told the people that "He that believeth on the Son 
hath eternal life, but he that obeyeth not the Son 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 153 

shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
him. " John here identifies belief with obedience. 
If we take our obedience to the commands of Christ 
as test of our belief, and our thus substantiated 
belief as our grounds for eternal life, just where do 
we stand to-day by this test? Shall there be 
enough of these living souls amongst us to save us 
from the utter destruction which seems imminent ? 

The apostle John tells us of the visit by night 
of the Pharisee Nicodemus to inquire of Jesus 
about His new doctrine. Jesus told him, ''Except 
one be bom anew [or from above] he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God." He further explains that, 
"Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he 
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. " So first 
one's vision must be widened and heightened until 
he sees all humanity as one, and Heaven and earth 
as one. ''Every knee [thank God] shall bow"; 
"a new Heaven and a new earth"; these pictures 
come into the vision of the true follower of the 
Master. Then, individually, we must be born 
anew by the cleansing of our lives from all sinful 
habits of mind and body. This cleansing is 
typified by the sacrament of baptism. We must 
be bom anew of the Holy Spirit in order that we 
shall be filled only by essential truths. Jesus said, 
"Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice. " 
If we are born of the Spirit of Truth, we shall be 
able to answer Pilate's question correctly. 

Paul, who had been especially well instructed 



154 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

in the meaning of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and 
who was also well versed in contemporary heathen 
philosophical cults as well as the Jewish, was quite 
prepared to compare them with his new faith. He 
thus expresses himself: "For I am not ashamed of 
the gospel : for it is the power of God unto salva- 
tion to every one that believeth. " He urges these 
Romans to whom he was writing to become well- 
pleasing to God by obedience to the Law of love 
to God and one another. And he says, "Be not 
fashioned according to this world, but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind." Then 
follows a homily to these people that the stem 
James cannot excel ; and that we would do well to 
heed. We must be good, Paul urges, but we need 
not be great, to enter Christ's Kingdom. He notes 
that not many wise (according to the flesh), or 
many noble, are called : but he adds, " God chooses 
the foolish things of the world, that He might put 
to shame the things that are strong." We con- 
clude from these passages and their connexions, 
that often God chooses very weak vessels for great 
service, in order that He alone may be recognized 
as Teacher and Ruler of His own Creation. And 
all who are called to some special service must give 
credit to Him alone for all excellence of service. 
However, we have the right to claim one quality—- 
if we possess it — that is, an absolute willingness for 
full self-sacrifice, when it is required of us. This 
will give us that earnestness of purpose which 



The Gospel of the Kingdom 155 

no one can turn aside from our clear path of 
duty. 

Peter urges repentance in order that sin may be 
blotted out, that spiritual refreshing may come 
to our souls, in order "that He [God] may send 
the Christ Who hath been appointed for you, even 
Jesus; Whom the heavens must receive until the 
times of restoration of all things, whereof God 
spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that have 
been from of old. . . . Unto you first God, 
having raised up His servant [or child], sent Him 
to bless you in turning away every one of you 
from your iniquities. " So, Peter, also, taught that 
Christ could not come to reign until we repented. 
This is a serious thought for Christian believers to 
face. Who of us is free from the sin which is 
serving to bar the progress of our patient Redeemer 
out of His Kingdom in the hearts of men? 

True His reign began at His ascension, at the 
close of His earthly career; but what a pitifully 
small earthly kingdom it has been. Oh, let us all 
join in the universal earnest effort to hasten the 
day when the Angel of God shall be authorized 
to announce, "The Kingdom of the world is be- 
come the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. " 
Not only Christendom, which is called by His 
name, but all the nations and peoples of the earth, 
must and shall be as one beloved family of the 
Father, under the beneficent reign of His only 
begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth. 



156 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

Oh, many of us do hope earnestly that very 
soon — 

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till suns shall rise and wane no more. 

And let us all unite to chant that universal and 
holy prayer left us by our Saviour King : 

Our Father who art in Heaven, 

Hallowed be Thy name. 

Thy kingdom come. 

Thy will be done on earth 

As it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread; 

And forgive us our trespasses, 

As we forgive them that trespass against us. 

And lead us not into temptation; 

But deliver us from evil; 

For thine is the kingdom. 

The power and the glory, 

For ever and ever. Amen. 



CHAPTER V 

THE FALLING AWAY 

"Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except 
the falling away come first, and the man of lawlessness (or sin) 
be revealed." 

2 Thess. ii. 3. 

"Behold Jehovah's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; 
neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear: but your iniquities 
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid 
his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are 
defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have 
spoken lies, and your tongue muttereth wickedness." 

IsA. lix. I, 2, 3. 

"For her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath 
remembered her iniquities." 

Rev. xviii. 5. 

THAT there should be a falling away from the 
true faith before the final coming of our Lord 
to reign on earth, is without doubt distinctly fore- 
told by the prophets of the old dispensation . That 
this was not wholly fulfilled before the new dis- 
pensation, is just as distinctly taught in the New 
Testament. Christ repeatedly referred to the 
condition of belief and morals which should prevail 

157 



158 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

in His professed following, at the time of His return 
to assume the full control of human affairs. His 
Revelation to us through John contained descrip- 
tions of the faults of some, the awful failure of 
most, and the sanctified fidelity of the few, of the 
Church which was to follow after and hold as 
leaven the teaching of the Master. To deny that 
this Church, as a whole, fell, is to deny the very 
foimdation of our religion, viz.: the word of the 
prophets, of Jesus Christ, and of His Apostles. 
Granted that she was to fall, and granted (by 
plenty of evidence) that she did fall; how shall we 
satisfy our intelligence or sense of reason, that this 
should be so? First we ask ourselves, How could 
she ever have so mistaken her mission? and second. 
How came it that the All-Wise and AU-Powerful 
should have so planned it to be? 

It is only by the use of our intellectual capacity 
to analyze and consider, accept or reject, the valid- 
ity of the thoughts, opinions, and conclusions, 
which are forced upon us from many God- given 
sources, that we ever come to have any ideas about, 
or conceptions of, things spiritual. Therefore we 
are obliged to face any doubt which may arise like 
a shadowy ghost from the darkness and dissipate 
or allay it in some way, or allow it to wander as 
an unholy thing in the secret chambers of our 
intellect, which stands guard over our souls. An 
intellect which is thus standing at this God-given 
post, dare not shirk its duty. It dare not neglect 



The Falling Away 159 

to challenge every belief or thought which may 
attempt to fix itself on the soul of which it is in 
charge. 

As to this question we might well ask, How 
cotdd the Church have so mistaken her mission? 
We might dwell at great length upon the themes 
of depravity, want of true faith, sin of arrogant 
desire to supersede all others in numerical and 
political greatness, of natural tendency to self- 
indulgent licence, etc., but having so explained 
the influences which may have brought it about or 
helped to bring it about, we should still be left with 
the all-inclusive question. How came it that the 
All- Wise and All-Powerful should have so planned 
it ? Had He not in His infinite foresight answered 
this question for us long ago, we should hesitate 
to say that He did plan it; but would take the 
generally accepted ground, that He merely per- 
mitted it to be so. Jehovah testifies of Himself 
thus, '*I form the light and create darkness; I 
make peace and create evil; I am Jehovah, that 
doeth all these things. " And He warns us of the 
sin of presumption in regard to judging our Crea- 
tor's methods for us. He says, ''Woe unto him 
that striveth with his Maker. Shall the clay say 
to Him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?" 
We are not at liberty to ask. Why? of our Creator; 
but we are under necessity to co-operate with 
God's plans as our intelligence enables us to see our 
duty in connexion with them. We must try to 



i6o If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

take the larger view of the universal order of things 
and not bind our judgment by the petty restric- 
tions of the present isolated moment. 

We are certainly too apt to look upon the career 
of our race on earth — 

Too insularly, as if 
No spiritual counterpoint completed it, 
Consummating its meaning, rounding all 
To justice and perfection, line upon line, 
Form by form, nothing single or alone. 
The great below clenched by the great above. 

Butler, in his work on Natural and Revealed 
Theology, gives us the following thoughts (and also 
refers us to Dick's Philosophy of a Future State) : 
''Again, it is said the various manifestations of 
God to men, his communications to them and 
especially his incarnation, are unworthy of him. 
The objection is, that as he is the Lord of countless 
worlds, he would not take such notice of one in 
comparison of the whole so insignificant. This is 
overlooking the fact that God is omniscient, omni- 
potent, infinite. If he notices the sparrow's fall 
and numbers the hairs of our heads, which philo- 
sophy as well as the Bible concedes, will he not 
concern himself for the welfare of millions on 
millions of immortal beings bearing his own moral 
image? Who can say also what influence the 
effects of sin here and the plan of redemption may 
not have exerted on other parts of the universe? 
Were the dealings of God with men recorded in 



The Falling Away i6i 

Scripture confined wholly to our species, they 
could not on any just principles be pronounced 
unworthy of him. And when we consider the 
bearing which they may have on other worids, all 
occasion of scepticism on this point vanishes." 
This thought, from Butler, seems to be a much more 
scriptural view of God's creative plans than that of 
the poet Milton, when he makes God to say of 
man — 

I made him just and right, 

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. 

. . . They themselves decreed 

Their own revolt, not I; if I foreknew, 

Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault, 

Which had no less proved certain unforeknown. 

We are led to wonder whether Milton was as clear 
an expounder of Scripture as he was a splendidly 
gifted poet. 

Long, bitter, and unchristian has been the feud 
between the upholders of Calvinism and the up- 
holders of Arminianism: and to what end? I 
do not perceive how a Scripture student or a Nature 
student can pass by the facts disclosed by these 
two infallible sources, showing that there is a 
Supreme Originator and Controller of the destiny 
of every atom in the great Universe, in all there is 
or can be in Matter. The scientist finds a Law 
and Order so all-embracing that it provides for 
even the process of dissolution and decay. The 
young earth being covered with dense green plant 



i62 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

life was doubtless a beautiful sight; and when 
great trees began to cover the earth, this plant life 
began to cover itself into great depths. It died, 
decayed, solidified, and remained in a prison of 
heavy darkness while, perhaps, millenniums passed 
over its overthrown beauty. But the Creator 
Who was, and is, and is to come, knew just what 
use He had planned for it. And now, in His 
ripened time, we, by His kind and thoughtful 
providence, are using it for our need: and again 
is it being transformed into yet another form of 
being. We might instance many properties in 
Matter which are to-day being used to benefit 
the vegetable kingdom from which we obtain our 
food, that are positively obnoxious in themselves. 
These, often loathsome, mixtures help to produce 
the finest grains and fruits and the most beautiful 
and fragrant flowers. If our wise Creator plans 
to produce disgusting decay of animal and vege- 
table life, and through this avenue transform it 
into finest food and sweetest beauty, is it wise of us 
to say that He does not, or cannot will that we pass 
through an epoch of sin and misery in order that we 
may be transformed into a new creation of His 
own planning ? * ' It is not yet made manifest what 
we shall be." That is, if we struggle out of our sin- 
ful condition and conform ourselves to the best we 
know. True we are not insensate plant or soulless 
beast. But has it not been well argued that ''Na- 
tural Law is but the vanishing lines of a great 



The Falling Away 163 

Eternal Order"? Many operations of great skill 
are performed by wise men to-day on the human 
body; but one which has a distinct message to us 
regarding our designed period of sinning, is that of 
inoculation. It really seems as if that very natural 
operation in our bodies against the worst forms of 
many diseases is the counterpart of our period of 
tendency towards sinning, in order that our souls 
shall in this period run a term of the destructive 
disease which shall save us through eternity from 
ever again falling into its death-producing grasp. 
We all and every one of us are thus inoculated by 
sin, and sin runs a certain course in us. If we do 
not exhaust our sinful tendency, we shall not be 
saved by our soundness, but we shall succumb to 
the real disease. The disease of sin destroys us. 
Temptation gives us the experience that we require 
for ultimate good. If we fall into sin, we should 
use it as a lesson never to so fall again. If we 
continue to sin carelessly or rebelliously we have 
succumbed, not to the inoculation, but to the 
disease itself, which is destructive and not remedial. 
By our reluctant falling we learn to hate sin ; we 
learn to be watchful, to have eyes towards sinning, 
as the word inoculation seems to suggest from its 
root meaning, viz. : '*to furnish with eyes. " 

So we find it to be not only scriptural to conclude 
that our tendency towards the disease was designed 
by our Creator for our ultimate immunity toward 
sin; but we find that He has also provided the 



i64 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

same remedy to be used by man both in the animal 
and vegetable kingdom and that it is so applied to 
both of these kingdoms in Nature. God said, "I 
create evil. " He did not say, I unwillingly permit 
evil. If He creates evil, we may be just as sure as 
that God is God, that He has also planned in utter 
wisdom all the consequence of evil. And we may 
be as sure as that God is Truth, that ultimately 
His creation of our Race and all the incidental 
experiences of decay and spiritual degeneracy 
which the plan for our career entailed, shall be full 
of interest to us in another state of being, and that 
we too shall agree that it is indeed good. Perhaps 
we shall carry out these two lessons in our spiritual 
experience which we have noted in Nature. Per- 
haps we have either the experience of attaining to 
immuneness from sin, or that of passing away into 
soulless debris, from which God will re-use us in 
some way. Perhaps, we said, but is it not a fact 
that if we be not resurrected from the sinful life 
we die? And do we not know that God 
wastes not, but only transforms chaotic matter? 
Is it not a more hopeful outlook to become immune 
from destruction than to pass into a knowledge- 
less chaos? We had better see from Nature that 
if we do not justify our remedy, by improvement 
and recovery, w^e shall not be in good enough con- 
dition of spiritual health to be retained by our 
Husbandman now, at the time of the Harvest. 
We must not forget that our repentance or our 



The Falling Away 165 

destruction is foretold as God's mandate. Re- 
surrection and destruction are both waiting near 
by for our decision. Whosoever will may be 
resurrected from the falling away from our first 
innocent estate. 

God's eternal purposes change not. We must 
believe that we are placed here just as we are, by 
our Creator's eternal purpose. This is the belief 
which gives us that trust in God, of which so much 
is said in both Books of Scripture, as our surety in 
time of need : and when, in our weakness, have we 
not a tendency toward sinning? Do we not need 
help? It is this trust that gives us ''hope that He 
will also still deliver us. " It gives us to know that 
"Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of 
trouble ; and He knoweth them that take refuge in 
Him. " We know that it is said, "Thou wilt keep 
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, 
because he trusteth in Thee. " The marginal ren- 
dering of the word mind is (in the R. V.) given as 
imagination, which is much to be preferred ; in that 
it suggests the idea that hope is fed through this 
trustful imagination. It gives us visions of an 
ideal future which the cold logic of a trained but 
restricted brain could never give us. This well- 
founded trust enables us to say with the Psalmist, 
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
deep darkness of death, I will fear no evil ; for Thou 
art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort 
me"; and to say, "I will take refuge in the covert 



i66 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

of Thy wings, for Thou, O God, hast heard my 
vows, Thou hast given me the heritage of those 
that fear Thy name. " 

But after confessing with all earnestness to the 
uttermost belief in the full power of God, and in His 
predestined and accurately executed designs for 
our career, we have but journeyed along on the 
flow of one of these ofttimes tempestuous streams, 
that sometime shall join into one, in order that they 
may in true Christian unity flow as one into the 
Kingdom of God. In both Books is the call to 
repentance the paramount theme. If we are not 
the masters of our own wills, this constant exhorta- 
tion and invitation is cruel mockery to a fated 
people. If we cannot use our own wills for deci- 
sions of thought and conduct, then Christ taunted 
us from out His throne with a delusive hope, when 
He said so tenderly, ' ' And he that is athirst, let him 
come; he that will, let him take the water of life 
freely. " Oh, we are so glad that He did say it to 
us, in this tenderly reassuring way ! 

We shall not dwell on the well-known texts which 
give multiplied Scripture evidence that a man has a 
free will to do right or wrong, as to-day this re- 
quires little or no upholding. All must see that the 
new dispensation is one of liberty of the human 
soul to obey, or rebel. And we believe it to be 
mainly true of the old dispensation as well. If 
God can control the Universe in its magnitude and 
in its minutest forms, can He not also give us the 



The Falling Away 167 

will to do or not to do — which by some skilful 
management shall not disturb His designs and yet 
is not automatic? We restrict God's possibilities 
too much. That our Creator planned our career 
to be just as it has been for an object lesson to 
others as well as to ourselves, is more than pro- 
bable. But that we are to take licence from this 
idea and think that we may continue to sin in 
predestined security from the death of the soul, is a 
diabolical illusion, and utterly without foundation 
either in Scripture, Nature, or Reason. Never was 
it more of a satanic trap than to-day; this day of 
the merging of the age, in which Christendom has 
turned liberty into a licence to sin, into that period 
when she shall have realized her mission, by using 
her high-born liberty to fit herself for useful service 
towards the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, by 
implicit and childlike obedience to the Royal Law. 
She will, we hope and pray, use all her God-given 
powers to bend her own will to that of her Re- 
deemer whom she as a Church has defied so long. 
If we cannot fully comprehend just why our earthly 
experience has been so very unlovel}'-, let us not 
impudently judge God, but rather make every 
effort of mind and soul to gain the higher life ; the 
life that we share with Jesus Christ by conforming 
to His type. If we do not do so, and still believe 
that He is the Messiah, then we share the life and 
belief of the demons; so James instructs us. We 
had better make an effort each for himself to con- 



1 68 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

form to His moral image, and not think that we 
shall be coerced into a loving obedience to Christ's 
regime. Let us say with the apostle Paul, ''Not 
that I have already obtained, or am already made 
perfect ; but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold 
on that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ 
Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have 
laid hold, but one thing I do, forgetting the things 
which are behind and stretching forward to the 
things which are before, I press on toward the goal 
unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect 
[or full grown], be thus minded, and if in anything 
ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal 
unto you: only, whereunto we have attained, by 
that same rule let us walk." What admirable 
and reasonable advice this striving and humble 
soul has here given us ! Paul surely united the two 
seemingly opposing doctrines in his own life and 
preaching. He could not well avoid knowing that 
he was called for a special work, after all his ex- 
periences; but this did not make him feel that he 
had licence to be more careless of walking than 
others. There is so much prophetic. Messianic, 
and apostolic evidence of the call to eternal life; 
and of the more special call of some to special 
service, that it is not necessary to further discuss it. 
Up to the present day the wills of the units of 
professed Christendom, all but the few, have been 
greatly at fault. In both dispensations this imper- 



The Falling Away 169 

feet state of mind and will has resulted in a deplor- 
able and most pronounced falling away from the 
Law of God, either through careless walking or 
wilful disobedience. Of this there can be no valid 
doubt. That these two periods were ordained for a 
trial of influences on the human soul, there can be 
but little doubt. That the old regime of "carnal 
ordinances" had little lasting effect on men's right- 
eousness, is agreed to by all who read the history of 
it. That the regime of fewer rites and ceremonies, 
less restriction, more simple teaching, more liberty, 
has had a more beneficial influence on the right- 
eousness of men, in this now almost completed 
period in which we find ourselves to-day, is to be 
greatly doubted. If we look into our history we 
shall soon see into what greater depths of sinning 
the Christian Church fell, than did the Jewish, 
whom she has despised though less guilty than 
herself. The dark and middle ages have a humili- 
ating tale of shame to disclose. The modern 
Church is not yet quite free from the spirit of 
these religious shambles. 

We may also find circumstantial evidence that 
God ordained the experience of these two trial 
periods, from their strange similarity in the courses 
they ran; and we hope not to be considered too 
imaginative, if we point out these similarities; 
but first we would draw attention to their probable 
object in God's purpose, viz. : If angels desired to 
look into these operations, we may assume with 



170 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

reason that it was to learn some needed lesson. 
We know that there were good and bad angels, that 
there were those who tempted and those who 
ministered to us. We also know that some of these 
personal intelligent entities were capable of either 
good or ill, because we learn that they kept not 
their first estate, but fell into disobedience. To 
satisfy our minds that God the Infinite may have 
perfectly wise reasons for making us an illustration 
of some principles to others, we beg to draw atten- 
tion to one, which is, we may suppose, more than 
likely to be correct. We must allow that at least 
in earlier days than ours there was freewill amongst 
the angels. We are not at all sure that they had it 
after some fell into open rebellion. We shall sup- 
pose for our purpose — as seems to be probable — 
that all who did not at that time fall, have since 
then been under a law of obedience from which 
there is no escape; else rebellion might have con- 
tinued. This would separate the spiritual beings 
into two classes, viz. : those who were rebellious 
and those who were obedient. We conclude from 
Scripture that these two classes remain as they are 
so divided until some later date ordained by the 
Creator. The rebellious class we will make no 
attempt at discussing; but concerning those who 
always were and still are obedient, we offer this 
suggestion. May not many of these become weary 
of the monotony of, shall we call it, automatic 
obedience? May not many of these also be weary 



The Falling Away 171 

of the simplicity of the creed which says that holy 
service one toward another is the only true wor- 
ship of God Most High ? We may the more easily 
grant this suggestion as being probable when we 
note that the obedient angels might be again 
divided into two classes, viz. : Those who love to 
do God's holy service would strive earnestly to do 
it, though there were no forceful influence com- 
pelling obedience. These are the truly Holy 
Angels. Then there may be those who are not so 
holy in their ideals. These may be at times dis- 
satisfied with their life of enforced obedience and 
may also desire a more spectacular worship of God 
rather than the simpler form of service towards 
those who need their ministry. So we suggest 
that these two points may have been illustrated in 
us to show, not only ourselves for reference in 
after experience, but also to show to these slightly 
disaffected but forcibly obedient angels that too 
much liberty of will leads souls into licence too 
often to be really advisable; that if we are con- 
trolled to obedience, we, in time, grow to have 
ideals equal to the law; and that this is ultimately 
the most satisfactory course for the individual soul 
as well as for the whole. We alread}^ recognize this 
theory in our common law, and we do not leave 
each person the liberty to do as he likes, excepting 
as he likes to obey the law. Then we have sug- 
gested that these may have desired more spectacu- 
lar or ceremonious worship of God Most High. 



172 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

This desire usually accompanies a low spiritual 
condition. In the Jewish Church we have a good 
object lesson of the inability of ritual to produce 
true piety. In the Romanized Christian Church 
we have also had another effective example of the 
deadening effect of ritualistic worship of God Most 
High. We, as well as the dissatisfied angels, must 
see that ritualism and true piety scarcely ever co- 
exist for long. Service to one another, as being 
true worship of God, is taught by word, and by 
illustration of its efficiency, all through the Scrip- 
ture and in the history of the Christian Church. 
We think that in at least these two most vital 
points both men and angels must have well learnt 
their lesson, unless they be indeed blind and deaf 
to the spiritual meaning of history. 

We should remember that earth touches heaven 
closely. John saw **A new heaven and a new 
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth are 
passed away. " This must be so when we become 
implicitly obedient like the good angels; for we 
shall be freed from the tempting demons which 
now surround us with their baneful influence, and 
perhaps we shall not require to the same extent the 
assistance of the blessed ministry of spiritual beings 
who are now constantly rescuing us from the path 
of sin into which we are far too easily tempted. 
This would bring about a new condition in the 
heaven immediately about us, as well as the new 
and blessed earthly condition. Liberty from the 



The Falling Away 173 

bondage of sin, of struggling against sin, is Heaven 
within. Licence towards self-indulgent sinning 
and a consent towards it, is Hell within. In the 
new condition we shall be in the Kingdom of 
Heaven Within. 

Paul tells the Thessalonians that, "Touching 
the coming [or presence] of our Lord Jesus Christ 
and our gathering together unto Him; to the end 
that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor 
yet be troubled either by spirit or by word or by 
epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is 
at hand; let no man beguile you in any wise: for 
it will not be except the falling away come first 
and the man of sin [or lawlessness] be revealed, 
the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth 
himself against all that is called God .... And 
now ye know that which restraineth, to the end 
that he may be revealed in his own season. For 
the mystery of lawlessness doth already work, only 
there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken 
out of the way, and then shall be revealed the 
lawless one whom the Lord Jesus shall slay [or 
consume] with the breath of His mouth and bring 
to naught by the manifestation of his presence, 
even he whose coming [or presence] is according 
to the working of Satan with all power and signs 
and lying wonders and with all deceit of unright- 
eousness for them that are perishing ; because they 
receive not the love of truth, that they might be 
saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a 



174 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

working of error, that they should believe a lie, 
that they might be judged who believed not the 
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. " We 
as Protestants have accused the Roman Catholic 
Church of holding this spirit of lawlessness espe- 
cially in the person of that man who happens to fill 
the arrogant office of Pope of the Roman Church. 
But Paul says in the above passage, ''For the 
mystery of lawlessness doth already work," and 
this was said some three hundred years before the 
Church became semi-paganized by the affiliation 
with pagan Rome. And these had no especial 
Pope for some time after that. The term, the 
Man of Lawlessness, has a wider meaning than this, 
although we may be sure that the term includes all 
of these arrogant potentates. And it includes all 
others who exalt themselves against all that is 
called God. In the sj^-mbolic language of the 
Scriptures the term Woman seems to be the actual 
body of the Church as it exists in its members as a 
whole, while the term Man seems always to signify 
the thought-seed which produced the profession of 
the individuals that go to make up the body, or the 
Woman. Then we must look for this Man of Sin 
wherever church organization exists. If an organi- 
zation exists in which he is not found, then we 
may hope there to find the true faith taught and 
practised. Paul, the chief apostle of the Christian 
religion, was very strong in his denouncement of 
those who did not preach the Faith as he had given 



The Falling Away 175 

it to them. To the apostate Galatians he writes: 
"I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from 
Him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a 
different gospel ; which is not another gospel, only 
there are some that trouble you and would prevent 
the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel 
from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel 
other than that which we preached unto you, let 
him be anathema. . . . For I make known to 
3^ou, brethren, as touching the gospel which v/as 
preached by me that it is not after men. For 
neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught 
it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus 
Christ. " Again we see Paul warning these apos- 
tate professors, "For ye, brethren, were called for 
freedom; only use not your freedom for an occa- 
sion to the flesh, but through love be servants one 
to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one 
word, even in this : Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
as thyself. " And he warns these not to follow the 
lusts of the flesh, but to bear the fruits of the Spirit. 
He says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, 
peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithful- 
ness, meekness, self-control ; against such there is no 
law. And they that are of Christ Jesus have cruci- 
fied the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof. 
If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us walk. 
Let us not become vain-glorious, challenging [or 
provoking] one another, envying one another." 
If we take this homily in our hand, or in our mind, 



176 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

and review the history of the Church in all her 
wanderings amidst hatred, gloom, fighting for 
supremacy, unwillingness to suffer for the Master*s 
sake, unkindness, unrighteousness, unfaithfulness 
towards Christ and each other, haughtiness, lack of 
Christian forbearance, — against which sinning the 
law of God stands firm and inexorable, — we shall 
not be far from finding the Man of Lawlessness. 
When he is revealed Christ can come to us. The 
Church of Christendom has too much, even to-day, 
put carnal ordinances before the law of obedience. 
This is the cause of the falling away, indeed it is 
the falling away. Holiness is our testing quality 
before God and His Christ; instead of which we 
have placed knowledge and approval of some 
intricate doctrine in the first place. This difference 
of opinion on our leading dogmas has generated 
enough hate and cruelty in the Church to condemn 
her to destruction. And this is just where she 
stands to-day. If she does not abandon all such 
errors, and teach only that which Christ taught 
and instructed His apostles to preach, she shall 
be destroyed as was her type, Jerusalem. Not 
the Church of Christ hut the unfaithful organizations 
which are called by His Name hut are not oj the true 
Christian Faith, which teaches nothing hut ohedience 
to, and trust in, Christ. We are glad to know that 
the Church as a whole is to-day avoiding, as being 
injurious, these topics of personal opinion, which 
cause so much strife and hate. We may hope by 



The Falling Away 177 

this pregnant sign that the Church is cleansing 
herself, at least in her religious theories. Good 
citizenship is taking on a prominence in civilized 
countries which has never before been acceded to 
it. We hope that this spirit will soon enter more 
fully into the Church. We grant that individually 
it is becoming believed in, but we hope for the day 
when holiness shall be required in Church member- 
ship. The general effort towards Church union is an 
admission that divisional doctrines are non-essentials. 
These efforts are tending towards the Kingdom 
of Heaven on earth. When we are led to see 
that Faith in Christ, as taught by Christ and the 
apostles, is obedience to Christ, that according to 
these belief and obedience have but one meaning 
to a Christian, then we shall see just where the 
Man of Lawlessness stands. We shall see him 
revealed. When we acknowledge him to be 
nothing more nor less than a licence towards the 
breaking of God's law; which licence we have in- 
dulged in, thinking that because Christ died for 
our sins we could go on sinning; or that because 
Christ, by dying for us, in some way paid God for 
our liberty to do as we liked with impunity ; when 
we see this to be the wicked thought-seed, the Man 
of Sin, which is ruining the Church, and has been 
ruining it ever since Paul so wrote, then shall this 
destroyer of the Race stand revealed. I think if 
Christendom saw this as it really is, and straight- 
way began to cleanse herself with all her heart and 



178 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

soul, the whole world would follow in her wake and 
say, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of 
Jehovah and to the house of the God of Jacob and 
He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His 
paths." May God in His infinite mercy grant 
that this may soon become a reality. 

Neither of the two dispensations were success- 
ful, if holiness is the final test of religion. The 
first was filled with rites and ceremonies which had 
esoteric meanings and were calculated to promote 
holiness by that method. This did not follow, for 
we find that its followers fell from their first purity 
most disastrously. The second was void of rites 
and ceremonies, but filled with liberty of action; 
only with the reservation, that all action must be 
controlled by the simple principle of love to God 
and love and helpfulness one towards another. 
Neither did this regime prove to be a success; as 
we find the Christian Church also fell away from 
its first purity, and is still, taken as a whole, in an 
appalling condition as regards being a power for 
holiness in the world, notwithstanding much noble 
effort of the ever present few. 

We find that these two unsuccessful trial regimes 
ran an almost similar course, both in time and 
circumstance. If we take the period from Abra- 
ham's call, to the advent of the promised Messiah, 
we shall find that it is very nearly the same number 
of years as the period between the advent of Christ 
until to-day, or a little later. Also we find these 



The Falling Away 179 

two periods are subdivided into approximately 
similar periods in both regimes. These sub- 
periods run thus : first, from Abraham's call until 
the call of Moses ; second, from the call of Moses to 
the close of inspired writing ; third, from this to the 
arrival of the Messiah. Then, similarly in the 
Christian era: first, from Christ until Constantine 
and the fall of Rome ; second, from the fall of 
Rome until the Reformation; third, from the 
Reformation until to-day, or a little later. If we 
look into these two sets of periods we shall find 
that each pair of periods is of approximately the 
same number of years. And in similarity of ex- 
perience their likeness is not less striking. The 
holy zeal of the first pair of periods is very striking 
in both. The long and eventful life of Israel as a 
nation, imtil the close of inspiration, gives us a 
very similar story in many ways to that of the 
Christian Church as she became nationalized by 
Constantine, until we find her in the throes of the 
Reformation. And in the pre-Christian era we 
shall find again much likeness to that portion of 
our era which lies between the Reformation and 
our Lord's Return. 

From what few facts we can glean concerning the 
Jewish people, we have no reason to doubt but that 
they served the God of their father Abraham dur- 
ing this first period in at least a goodly measure; 
not perfectly perhaps, but fairly faithfully. We 
find that they became so numerous and influential, 



i8o If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

that they were a menace to the power of the Egyp- 
tians among whom they dwelt. We find that they 
were so hardly dealt with that their lives were filled 
with bitterness. We need not go into the familiar 
details of the exodus of this people from Egypt, 
or of their tiresome journey in the wilderness, or 
of the arrival at Canaan; but by recalling to 
memory these passing events, we shall find a close 
parallel to the first period in the Christian Church. 
We find that this people also started out well. 
They were so full, at first, of holy zeal, that they 
actually tried to follow the trend of Christ's teach- 
ing, the doctrine of obedience to God and love 
towards one another. We find that this obedience 
to their new light brought them success and plenty, 
though it brought also persecution. But in time 
this success in numbers and influence brought them 
to the notice of the power of Rome. These too 
were becoming a menace to the empire in which 
they were servants only. As in the former case, 
so in this : it was found to be necessary to establish 
in some way the security of the ruling power. 
Constantine chose the craftier and more worldly- 
wise plan, and conciliated this people by affiliating 
them into a friendly constituent of his empire. 
This was a great change for the early Christians, 
as it lifted them out of a cruel and oppressive state 
of persecution, into being a joint power with other 
citizens of Rome. I think unprejudiced historians 
explain this change of attitude towards the Christ- 



The Falling Away i8i 

ians as arising more from policy than piety or real 
change of heart in the Emperor of Rome. The 
worldly wisdom of this policy was soon justified 
by the fall of the pagan party of Rome for ever. 
And thus at the fall of Rome we find the Christian 
marching side by side with the pagan, and joining 
together in a new-bom unity under the ensign of 
the Cross upheld by the pagan goddess Victory. 
Never was there an ensign set up more apt to cir- 
cumstances than this. We find the next period in 
each of these dispensations to bear the same strik- 
ing resemblance of outline, not only in approxi- 
mate length of time, but also in the strange 
similarity of moral experience. One cannot help 
seeing that the temporal and spiritual experience 
of these two peoples run along the same lines. 
Their inconsistencies, their disobedience to the 
light of acknowledged law, their affiliation with 
paganism, compose the subject matter of the 
history of both peoples alike. The first was not 
satisfied, but it must add more and yet more laws 
and obligations to its ample ritual. It borrowed 
from pagan sources, or wandered into absolute 
paganism, at times. It repented time after time, 
and went on its way worse than ever. The spirit- 
ual meaning of it all was ignored and almost for- 
gotten, excepting by the few. And the Christian 
Church during her parallel period ignored the true 
teaching of Christ, her Founder and Master, and 
used the liberty of the new regime to begin a series 



1 82 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

of religious wrangles, unequalled we hope in any 
other religion. The war of creeds stormed noisily- 
all down the centuries, until now if one examine the 
different denominations, even in reformed Pro- 
testantism, he will stand in wonder at their variety. 
It is the counterpart of the Jewish error of adding 
more rites and ceremonies. Some few also in the 
Christian Church have had a simple enough faith 
in Christ and His redemptive office to be as a little 
leaven which has kept her from falling never to 
rise again. We not only hope that she shall soon 
rise and become, under Christ, the bread of life to 
the other children; but we think we can see signs 
of this leaven at work in its developing potency in 
all the public avenues of life. We shotild all thank 
God that our period of living is placed in the to-day. 
But until the Reformation, there was little chance 
for the leaven to work, as we may now observe it 
to be doing. The old religionist lost the ark; we 
have lost the power to listen only to Christ. The 
reformed Church was mostly a reform of creeds; 
better these were, of that there can be no doubt, 
but still it was a matter of creeds, creeds, creeds, 
till Christ was almost forgotten. There seems to 
be one difference between these two periods : in the 
old we do not read that there was so much perse- 
cution between those of the same faith as there 
was in the Christian period. This will stand out as 
long as our earthly memory lasts, as one of the 
most inconsistent and disgraceful of all sins that 



The Falling Away 183 

any people have fallen into, that we have so per- 
secuted each other, and within the confines of the 
same religious belief, and that belief founded on the 
principles of brotherly love. It was surely a great 
Satanic victory. We shall also find a similarity 
of length of years and circumstance, such as we 
have noted, in the former periods of each dispensa- 
tion. The epoch from the Reformation, or a little 
before it, until now, and a little later, compares 
in some respects with the Jewish epoch from the 
close of inspiration and a little before, until Christ's 
time. Otherwise than in length of time we find 
them to bear resemblance. Without attempting 
anything which may be considered far-fetched or 
fanciful, we may consider that at least there was in 
both some similarity in the struggles of Church and 
State, of priest and king, of lawkeepers and law- 
breakers. But we do not expect to find to-day 
that our Protestant priesthood, our modern clergy 
of all Protestant sects, are quite so bad as Christ's 
description of the old would lead us to fear they 
might be. We know that some are bound up in the 
hardening bands of an empty formalism as empty 
as that of present-day Romanism. But that these 
are in the minority we fully conceded, and perhaps 
none are more severe on these than their brother 
Anglicans of purer creed and holier aspiration. 
And we must remember that the danger of formal- 
ism is not wanting in the programme, or machinery, 
of the non-conformists. All worship is likely to 



i84 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

become a habit, if one engage in it in one way 
regularly for long. So much of this and so much 
of that, and the same over and over again. This is 
my personal reason for feeling inclined to worship 
in the purest form of the Established Church. 
After many years of worship outside of it, I feel 
that this form of the worship of God is most 
excellent and cannot be excelled by extempore 
prayers or by irregular forms. Formalism can 
creep into the service of a village prayer meeting, 
or where two or three are gathered together in His 
Name, even in the most isolated rural district. 
This I know after many years of experience. 
Good living souls these were, many of them, and 
they loved God sincerely and tried to live honour- 
ably between each other and before the world; 
but their prayers scarcely ever varied much. 
Then why not adopt that which is so beautifully 
all-inclusive; only let us be sure to pray from our 
hearts and not merely from habit. That alone is 
the danger in public prayer, whether it be written 
or not. I believe John Wesley agreed with this 
view, and desired the use of the Prayer Book. 
I ask of the Established Church to examine herself, 
and see if she cannot become so pure and yet so 
liberal-minded that she may once more become 
the home for all her people — the House of Prayer 
for the people, not from overbearing arrogancy, 
that day has for ever passed, but from purity of 
worship and simple catholicity of creed. To this 



The Falling Away 185 

end many of her best people are now striving. We 
see in this holy attempt a sign of the fulfilling of one 
of the offices of this period. The parallel period 
was preparing for Christ, so are we. They were 
preparing for a mere reception of the Kingdom; 
we are preparing for its utmost fulfilment. Their 
clergy were misleading the people so that few were 
in a mental or religious state to receive Christ in 
His simple atmosphere of holiness and its accom- 
panying gifts. It is the mission of our clergy to 
rightly lead the people into this simpler environ- 
ment of holiness, wherein it shall be possible to 
receive Him as Our Ruler and Friend. Both 
periods had this office of preparation for Christ, 
the one for the falling away, the other, the present 
one, for His full reign. We shall find that these 
two periods have also an educational office. Re- 
ligion and education are closely allied as move- 
ments, the one usually being complement of the 
other. We will note as briefly as we may the 
educational movement preceded the advent of 
Christ and prepared a people for His simple and 
scientific wisdom. Between five and six hundred 
years before Christ, when Draco, Solon, and 
Clisthenes were trying with a good deal of success 
to reform the laws and customs of ancient Greece, 
Servius Tullius was forming a set of laws and cus- 
toms for ancient Rome ; these were much the same 
as those which Solon was at the same time setting 
up in Athens. New life and culture were thus 



i86 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

aroused in these two powerful States. This effort 
had not quite died down when Christ came to 
plant on the awakened soil of these two nations 
the seed of His Kingdom. Especially in Greece 
was this new life followed by a fruition of men like 
Homer, and brilliant educationalists such as 
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and we may 
include the Neo-Platonists. While Rome does not 
seem to have developed a philosophical school of 
her own, still she gladly adopted that of Athens 
and made herself busy at intervals endeavouring 
to carry out various schemes of reformation in her 
laws and usages, with more or less success, until 
the day of comparative happiness for her people 
which was hers under Augustus, and which was the 
natal day of the Prince of Peace. It was during 
this reign that the Roman Empire gave to the world 
the works of Virgil, Horace, Livy, and Ovid. We 
might mention the names of many other brilliant 
persons who flourished in Greece, Rome, Egypt, 
and elsewhere during that period of about five 
hundred years before Christ; but we merely wish 
to draw attention to the fact that this period bears 
a strange resemblance in this respect to our own 
renaissance of the fifteenth century, the fruits of 
which are still ripening in western Europe. Be- 
fore leaving the subject of the older preparatory 
period, we wish to draw attention to the religious 
activity amongst the prophets of Israel during this 
same comparative period of Greek and Roman 



The Falling Away 187 

activity in general learning. About the same date 
as Draco, we find the prophet Jeremiah warning 
the people of Israel that God was preparing a 
punishment for them, did they not hasten to repent 
of their idolatrous apostasy and other enormities. 
Then come his Lamentations over the absolute 
fulfilment of his prophecy. They had not repented, 
and the blow had fallen. Habakkuk also warns 
this people and foretells in graphic imagery their 
captivity and dispersion. Daniel speaks from out 
the captivity to us. Though now a prisoner in the 
proud Court of Babylon, he is able to give an his- 
toric account of parts of this period and also pro- 
phesy future events some of which are to-day 
imminent in their fulfilment. Obadiah warns the 
enemies of Israel and foretells that these children 
of promise shall yet become a flourishing kingdom. 
That also must now be imminent. Ezekiel writes 
his work of strong reproof and often of mystical 
meaning, but of reassuring comfort to this stricken 
people. Also he foretells our last great struggle, 
between guilty unrighteousness and obedient 
goodness; between, we conclude, spiritual Israel 
and those who will not recognize the Rulership of 
Jesus the Messiah, as He is purifying the souls of 
men and the nations of the earth for His Kingdom. 
We believe ourselves to be now engaged in this 
struggle. Ezekiel concludes with a symbolic 
description of some place which is probably the 
Holy City, the righteous condition, in a figure. 



i88 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

After the return of a portion of Israel to their own 
country, we find Haggai urging them to rebuild 
the Temple and promises them the Divine assist- 
ance. He also foretells the second Temple as great- 
er than the first ; possibly meaning that it would be 
honoured by the presence of the Messiah. Or, he 
may surely have had half -hidden meaning that the 
second Temple was to be greater than the first, 
considering the Church as God's visible Temple. 
Haggai also foretells the setting up of the Kingdom 
of the Messiah, in which Kingdom should be peace. 
We pray that this also be now imminent. We also 
have the warnings and prophesyings concerning 
the Kingdom of Malachi, Ezra, and Nehemiah. 
After foretelling the forerunner of the Messiah, and 
the terrible day of cleansing that should come upon 
the people, these prophets close their warnings, 
which spread over about two hundred years, and 
pass into a silence unbroken until John the Bap- 
tist came with his divine announcement of the 
arrival of the Messiah and His Kingdom. This 
silent interval does not seem to be very rich in 
fruition as following these prophets. But the work 
of these prophets, added to the work of the brilHant 
contemporary educationalists of now classic mem- 
ory, forms a chapter of great mental brilliancy 
difficult to surpass; and do we not find its nearest 
counterpart to be that of our Western renaissance 
of the fifteenth century and after? As in Greece 
and Rome, did we not have our thinkers, philo- 



The Falling Away 189 

sophers, lawgivers, have we not had our struggles 
between the aristocrat and the pleb, between slave 
and free, rich and poor? And were there not even 
some early crude efforts towards remedial meas- 
ures for these grievances? And has not the seed 
of this effort brought forth much goodly fruit since 
then? Is it not the proudest boast in our empire 
to-day that all wrongs shall be corrected? And 
have we not during these five hundred years had 
our modem prophets? Following in the steps of 
the Wickliffe and Huss of earlier date, have we not 
such names as Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingle, 
Calvin, John Knox? — each one bringing some 
divine message to us, although, unlike the holy 
prophets, these perhaps unconsciously mixed some 
error along with much holy effort ; but no one can 
doubt that the Western Church owes its existence 
to these noble struggling souls. Then in our own 
nation have we not the Elizabethan encourage- 
ment to all classes of learning? This has left a 
trail of literary stars whose radiance still draws all 
eyes to our nation and language. Have we not 
the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with 
their lesser brothers, still flourishing in our midst 
and across the seas? Have we not broad and 
scientific minds begotten and matured in our na- 
tion as well as in western Europe generally? Do 
we not see our nation, as chief responsible seat of 
Christendom to-day, in a tense struggle to bring 
the soil of our own and other kindred States into a 



190 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

condition wherein it shall be possible to begin to 
plant the perfect seed in this well-prepared soil, 
that shall have for its quickly ripening harvest the 
Kingdom of God? We are not preparing for a 
partial failure of the Kingdom, but for the full 
and absolute reign of Christ in righteousness. We 
must succeed. 

In all days of our trial or illustrative experience, 
ours is the Great Opportunity. We may well 
believe that, as long as memory shall last in the 
approaching experiences of the coming centuries, 
nothing will stand out in such clear and distinct 
relief as this one question, What use did we 
make of our Great Opportunity? It comes but 
once to each of us; but more momentous than 
that, it comes but once to the whole Race. Christ 
is now walking about amongst us, seeing our efforts 
towards His holy reign. He can read our hearts 
and knows perfectly well whether we want Him or 
not, whether we are working for His all-embracing 
regime, or for His overthrow, in honour of Satan. 
But to think that we can pretend to wish for the 
Kingdom and be working against it by personal 
or national sinfulness, is a foolish delusion, and not 
at all in keeping with our acquired wisdom in other 
matters of much less vital importance. If we are 
not now uniting in an acknowledged effort towards 
holy conditions, so that He shall reign, what is our 
reason for not doing so? It does not seem to be 
deliberate wickedness so much, for we find our- 



The Falling Away 191 

selves trying to correct all the worst forms of sin. 
Yet we do not seem to be ready to give ourselves 
absolutely to the ruling of the Gospel of the King- 
dom. We must have become blinded in our 
powers of perception of what true faith is, during 
our fallen period. So we had better awaken our- 
selves to its true meaning. ''Shall he find the 
faith?" or is it extinct among us? Hardness of 
heart and want of true faith in the Gospel of the 
Kingdom seems to be that which Christ foresaw 
in us with sorrow. We do seem to be such a re- 
spectable and pseudo-religious people, that we are 
difficult to convince as to our need of regeneration 
into holiness. But we are forewarned of this 
state, with all its selfish and petty defilements. 
Paul warns Timothy that, ' * In the last days griev- 
ous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of 
money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to 
parents, unthankful, unholy, . . . traitors, head- 
strong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than 
lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but 
having denied the power thereof." These are 
some of the faults which the nominal Church of 
Christ was to be guilty of in the last days. Do we 
find ourselves guilty of any or all of these? Does 
it not read more like a description of our present 
condition than a prophecy concerning it? This 
list is a brief summary of a class of selfish but re- 
spectable sins. But Peter warns us of a still more 
deadly danger which was to be ours in the last days. 



192 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

Hardness of heart, no doubt caused by the above 
sins, was to steal into our souls, until we were to 
become forgetful of the stern realities of the Gospel 
of the Kingdom. The danger lay in our forgetting 
the words of the prophets and the commandments 
of our Lord, which were left us through His apostles. 
Peter warns all Christians of this, or his preaching 
is vain. He says, "In the last days mockers shall 
come with mockery, walking after their own lusts 
and saying, Where is the promise of His coming 
[presence] ? for, from the day that the fathers fell 
asleep, all things continue as they were from the 
beginning of the creation." After further warn- 
ings as to their unbelief he says, ''But according 
to His promise, we look for a new heaven and a 
new earth, wherein dwelleth lighteousness. " We 
conclude from these two warnings that at Christ's 
coming, or acknowledged Presence, He will find 
the fallen Church guilty of these two classes of sins. 
She will be composed of persons who are steeped in 
the defilement of all sorts of petty selfish habits 
and aims ; and added to these they will mock at the 
idea of His near coming. What do we actually 
find now? Is this descriptive prophecy fulfilled 
to-day? What do worldly people say of the pro- 
fessors of Christianity ? or what do these say of one 
another? Then, as to Christ's coming soon; is it 
not a subject of derision amongst the majority of 
the professors of the Christian faith? Is it not 
almost considered to be the futile hope of a fanatic? 



The Falling Away 193 

We have a parable given us by our Lord for our 
warning on this subject. He tells us that a man 
planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen 
and went into another country for a long time. 
He sent servant after servant to them, but they 
beat them and sent them away empty. **Then the 
Lord of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I 
will send my beloved son, it may be that they will 
reverence him.' But these wicked men said, 'This 
is the heir; let us kill him that the inheritance may 
be ours. ' And they cast him forth and killed him. " 
But our Lord did not say that the inheritance then 
became the property of these murderous husband- 
men; but that the vineyard would be given to 
others, and these unworthy men would be de- 
stroyed by the owner of the vineyard at his arrival. 
The first dispensation had the prophets. Then 
God sent His Son and they slew Him. But this 
time He comes with the Power of God and He will 
destroy unfaithful husbandmen or those who put 
all their energies into building up their special 
religious or political or social interest instead of the 
Kingdom of God. 

There are two trends of essential doctrine, which 
run all through the Scriptures from Genesis to 
Revelation; which, at this day of the parting of 
the ways, we would do well to heed. The one is 
that God's plans for us always mature at the 
appointed time; the other is that sin brings ulti- 
mate destruction to the sinner. The flood came to 

Z3 



194 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

those who beHeved and those who scoffed, ahke; 
the difference lay only in the way it was met by 
these two classes of persons concerned. The 
Messiah came duly, and just when He was expected 
by those who had carefully considered the pro- 
phecies concerning Him. There was no failure 
in the fulfilment of these prophecies ; what disaster 
there was came from failure to fulfil the conditions 
demanded. Many of the people were drowned in 
Noah's day, because they did not believe and did 
not prepare. The Kingdom of Christ has been 
small on earth, because the majority have refused 
to prepare their souls for its occupation within 
them. If all this was part of a great plan of our 
Creator as an object lesson, we are in no wise 
responsible for anything concerning it in the past, 
but to-day is ours. It is ours to build an Ark for 
ourselves. It is ours to diligently till the vineyard 
for the returning Owner of all there is or can be. 
It is ours to cast up a highway, and to cast it up 
at once. We are in a position of final responsi- 
bility to-day. Everything points to the fact. Are 
we mockers of the last days, or are we believers? 
We are one or the other. As we have noted, God's 
plans mature in time; and sinning is inviting de- 
struction; and the parting of the ways is near. 
We may choose our path for a while and refuse 
to attain our refuge, but when the flood comes our 
destruction will be swift and sure. Some may 
think they will go on wickedly until the flood begins 



The Falling Away 195 

to come and then they will seek refuge in some safe 
Shelter. Do not thus hope, for there seems, from 
the Words of the Lord Christ, to be a time when 
those who have thus deliberately chosen to remain 
wicked for a while longer, shall remain so for ever. 
I refer to the passage, * ' He that is unrighteous, let 
him do unrighteousness still [or yet more], and he 
that is righteous, let him do righteousness still [or 
yet more]. " Then follows that alarming passage, 
''Behold, I come quickly, and my reward [or 
wages] is with me, to render to each man according 
as his work is. " All this is to be an earthly con- 
dition. There is no suggestion that it refers to 
physical death; though we may be sure that the 
same Judgment shall await us, if we pass into the 
other state of being before His coming to us. We 
are unwilling to leave this point of our responsi- 
bility for present and honest decision until we have 
used every effort to emphasize the great import- 
ance of each decision, which we may make to-day 
between right and wrong, between Christ and Sa- 
tan. It seems to be clearly set forth from events 
and dates and epochs, that now has come the time 
when we shall be obliged to choose whom we will 
serve: whether we shall become a resurrected 
people, raised from our fallen estate unto a hope of 
life eternal, or a people who choose to die a shame- 
ful death of destruction by suicidal sinning. The 
wages of sin is Death, of some sort, and by some 
process. 



196 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

We find that Jesus Christ was doubly sym- 
boHzed in the sacrificial offering in the old Jewish 
ritual. This is significant as bearing on His mis- 
sion and His experience since His first advent until 
His full redemptive reign. The image of the slain 
lamb is familiar to us as being the symbol of His 
crucifixion, which is the main ground of our Faith ; 
but do we as often think of the Messiah as sym- 
bolized by that other lamb, termed the Scapegoat, 
on whom were heaped the iniquities of the whole 
people. Surely this is the saddest phase of the 
Messiahship. He it is "who bore away our iniqui- 
ties, and carried off our diseases." No wonder 
that His sweat of blood fell to the ground from 
His anguish of soul. It is an insult to the calm 
courage of our Sovereign, to assume that this agony 
arose from dread of the physical pain, which He 
knew was to be His experience for a short while. 
No more belittling thought could be expressed of 
Him. Oh, no, it was His God-given vision of our 
shameless falling away from His Gospel while 
still professing Him, and the terrible results that 
shoiild follow, which rent His loving soul. Who 
that loves Him can doubt it ? It was the vision of 
His office of Scapegoat, bearing the sins of the 
people while in this long wilderness, which doubt- 
less bore so heavily upon Him at this dark hour. 
Our **two thousand years of wrong" were heaped 
upon His sinless soul at that awful hour. Is it 
not time that we arose to our feet in unity of en- 



The Falling Away 197 

deavour to relieve Him of this cruel and unthankful 
burden ? So long as we sin, He bears it. Verily, 
He is a Man of sorrows. We should remember 
that He cannot reign, actually, while He is forced 
by us to continue to carry this shameful burden 
of our sin. We must cease to sin, then we shall 
give our patient suffering Saviour His true King- 
ship in the hearts and conduct of mankind. 

We have during our term of falling away con- 
sented to crown our crucified One as King, and all 
the while we have kept Him, not only crucified 
afresh, but also we have kept Him in the wilderness 
under the crushing burden of our guilt. The past 
is held in the hand of our All-Wise Designer; it is 
not ours to deal with. We are told that ' 'the times 
of ignorance God overlooked; but now He corn- 
man deth men, that they should all, everywhere, 
repent; inasmuch as He hath appointed a day 
in which He will judge the world in righteousness 
by the man whom He hath ordained." Of how 
much more importance is this warning to-day, 
when we have every reason to believe that the 
appointed time is upon us, and the Judge is on His 
Judicial Throne, though not fully on His Royal 
Throne. He must first teach us as That Prophet. 
He is now judging us as our Judge; we hope that 
ere long He will be able to rise to His full position 
by consent of our willing hearts. If we do not so 
consent, we die, we are destroyed, by some pro- 
cess, long or short. 



198 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

We can easily see that obedience to the Supreme 
Lawgiver is the order of the Cosmos, of the Uni- 
versal process. We work as part of this process in 
an orderly and obedient manner, or we degenerate 
back into chaos. It is the Royal Law which de- 
signs that the created thing or soul which sinneth 
against its legitimate office in the universal order, 
dies, ceases to be, becomes waste material to be 
used again; for what purpose God, in His Infinite 
wisdom, only knows. But we know by our lessons 
from Nature that He wastes not. Conformity to 
type or reversal to chaos seems from Scripture 
to be our sure destiny, and we are all invited to 
conform to type; and even besought to will to 
escape destruction, or chaos. 

We have fallen out of the true way, as it was fore- 
told that we should do. Every one of us who call 
ourselves by His Holy name, who call ourselves 
Christians, should determine to reveal sin, or 
lawlessness, wherever we detect its deadly presence, 
irrespective of person or position ; for so only shall 
we rise from our fallen state. We must trust that 
our Saviour will send what assistance we require, 
if we are faithful to His Kingdom. We must unite 
to do all we can to help bring about His complete 
reign. Habakkuk wrote: ''And Jehovah answered 
me, and said. Write the vision and make it plain 
upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it. 
For the vision is yet for the appointed time and it 
hasteth towards the end and shall not lie : though it 



The Falling Away 199 

tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it 
will not delay. " 

O Saviour Christ, our woes dispel, 
For some are sick and some are sad, 
And some have never loved Thee well, 
And some have lost the love they had; 
And some have found the world is vain, 
Yet from the world they break not free; 
And some have friends who give them pain, 
Yet have not sought a friend in Thee; 
And all, O Lord, crave perfect rest, 
Yet are not wholly free from sin; 
And they who fain would serve Thee best 
Are conscious most of wrong within. 

H. Twells, 



CHAPTER VI 

AFTERWARDS 

"And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out 
my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young 
men shall see visions; and upon the servants and upon the hand- 
maidens in those days will I pour out my spirit. " 

Joel ii. 28, 29. 

" It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah in the day of Judgment, than for that city. " 

Matt. x. 15. 

"For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon 
which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in 
sackcloth and ashes." Matt. xi. 21. 

"The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the Judgment with this 
generation and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preach- 
ing of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is here. " 

Matt. xii. 41. 

"And the great city was divided into three parts and the cities 
of the nations fell and Babylon the great was remembered in the 
sight of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness 
of his wrath." Rev. xvi. 19. 

"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and 
high and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of 
heaven from God, having the glory of God. " 

Rev. xxi. 10. 

BEFORE we can arrive at any distinct conception 
of our responsibility as units of a great 
organization such as Christendom is, we must 
have some general idea of the experience of that 

200 



Afterwards 201 

great body, in its past, present, and probable future 
history or outlook. The past of Christendom is 
a matter of history, the present is ours to read, 
and the future ours to help make or mar. The 
promise of the future is very bright, if we will 
have it so. If we courageously struggle against 
sin, for the sake of the coming Kingdom, we enter 
it; if we do not, we perish miserably from our 
moral unsoundness, from our spiritual decadence. 
We had better decide at once to join the procession 
of holy souls who are hastening joyously towards 
the Holy City, in this early dawn of sun-streaked 
grey, which is heralding the glorious vision of all 
loyal souls, the Kingdom of God on earth, the 
glorious seventh day of rest from our sinful wander- 
ings away from the obedient innocence of our 
natal morn in Eden. 

Much prominence is given in the Scriptures to 
that collection of souls and the habitations thereof 
which we call a city. These are often used by the 
inspired writers as illustrations of God's dealings 
with men. In both Books, our attention is fre- 
quently drawn to their experience — our long 
hoped-for state of obedience to the Royal Law, 
under the direct rule of the Christ, being typified as 
Jerusalem, and our fallen era, or the period of our 
experience while we are more or less in a state of 
disobedience, under Satan's earthly rule, we find 
typified as Babylon (or Babel). Before consider- 
ing these two illustrative cities, we might give our 



202 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

attention to the peculiar experiences and destinies 
of some other ancient cities of which we are so 
frequently reminded in Scripture for our warning 
and instruction. In an attempt to reach the true 
meaning of the warnings in connexion with these, 
we must look briefly into the history and destiny of 
each, and perhaps we shall not find them lacking 
in timely warning for us to-day. 

The city of Sodom, with its surroundings, is first 
introduced to our attention in Scripture by a most 
alluring though brief description. It was said 
to be ''like the Garden of Jehovah." It was 
situated in the fertile plain of Jordan and seems 
to have been a most desirable place in which to 
live, and so Lot gladly settled there. We are 
told that **the men of Sodom were wicked and 
sinners against Jehovah exceedingly. " Abraham 
had settled not far away from Lot's new home, 
and Jehovah talked with him about the destruction 
of Sodom. Abraham pleaded for the life of Sodom, 
but Jehovah told him that if ten souls could not 
be found who were walking obediently to Him, 
it should be destroyed. But this small number 
could not be found; so she perished with her 
wicked sisters of this lovely plain ; all but Lot and 
his family. Perhaps there is no memory of child- 
hood Scripture lessons which remains so vividly 
and realistically in our minds as that of this great 
city receiving for its destruction the retributive 
fires from heaven; and of the few people 



Afterwards 203 

fleeing for their lives over the plains before this 
fury of fire and brimstone. And in that memor- 
able occuri'ence nothing stands out with more 
spectacular effect than the strange experience of 
Lot's wife. Disobediently, but with true womanly 
curiosity, and perhaps lingering love for her de- 
serted home and associations, she looked back. 
But the disobedience of that one moment cost her 
all that she might have inherited. As we visualize 
this remarkable scene, we see this now historic 
figure stricken by a strange doom. We may watch 
her as she slowly but surely turns into stone. We 
are warned by our Lord to "Remember Lot's 
wife's. She must be typical of some people who 
are living to-day, as her experience and doom are to 
be remembered by us. Is she represented to-day 
by the Church in any way? Does she signify 
those who profess to believe in Christ and leave 
the worldly pleasures and sinful conduct of which 
they have become too fond; and are ever turning 
back with longing admiring eyes, longing for less 
restraint, more licence? And in the lesson con- 
veyed in the idea that she was turned into stone, 
does it not seem to signify that those who are ever 
thus longing for the old paths of sin are experien- 
cing a hardening effect within their souls ? Was it 
not this hardness of heart, or stoniness of spiritual 
condition, that also affected the Scribes and Phari- 
sees to their destruction? Are we free from this 
hardening process ? But to leave the special lesson 



204 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

learned from the conduct and destiny of Lot*s 
wife, we may ask ourselves, What was the lesson 
for us in the destruction of these cities of the plain ? 
Why was Sodom so punished ? What was her sin ? 
We find that she was not destroyed only because 
she had so wickedly sinned in the past; but more 
because she utterly refused to repent or listen to 
any warning. She refused, individually, to quit 
sinning. She was composed of a class of scoffers 
whom we may easily find in evidence to-day. 
They were at liberty to repent if they willed to do 
so; but it seems that they had no desire towards 
goodness. That God's word of destruction was 
not inexorable had they repented is shown by His 
attitude towards them in His talk with Abraham, 
but they did not give Jehovah the opportunity to 
save them. And we believe that had a few more 
of them repented the whole city would have been 
saved, at least until they lapsed again — as did 
Nineveh. Isaiah warns the Israelites that had it 
not been for a very small remnant, they had in 
their day met with a like fate. Isaiah then pro- 
ceeds with a warning to them, calling them Rulers 
of Sodom and People of Gomorrah, and tells them 
how weary Jehovah was of their formal but empty 
religious exercises, and urges them to repent and 
to do that which is right. He tells them that 
Jehovah says, "And when ye spread forth your 
hands, I will hide mine eyes from you, yea, when 
ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands 



Afterwards 205 

are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put 
away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; 
seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the father- 
less, plead for the widow." We must conclude 
from this passage that these Sodomites were a 
formally religious people, as also were the Israelites 
whom Isaiah warned by their example. Jeremiah 
and Ezekiel both compare the idolatrous ways 
of Israel to Sodom. Jeremiah tells us that 
Jehovah says that Jerusalem's conduct was worse 
than that of Sodom. He says, "Behold this was 
the iniquity of thy sister Sodom : pride, fulness of 
bread, and prosperous ease were in her and her 
daughters ; neither did she strengthen the hands of 
the poor and the needy, and they were haughty and 
committed abominations before Me; therefore I 
took them away as I saw good." In Revelation 
we have this accusation made against the later 
Temple service, or the Christian Church. We can 
scarcely avoid the conclusion that it refers to the 
sinful state of the Church of the last days, or now. 
This passage explains, for fear we may misapply it 
to some one besides ourselves, that it is ''Where 
also their Lord was crucified." This identifies 
spiritual Sodom with the formal Church ; but as we 
are told that it is yet to come we must find it to be 
in our nominal Christian Church to-day, for do we 
not crucify Him afresh and put Him to an open 
shame constantly ? And are we not true successors 
to the old Church ? Sodom had also the reputation 



2o6 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

of being guilty of another wicked and unnatural 
habit. Did the Israelitish Church form no un- 
natural and immoral alliances? Has our Church 
from Constantine, and even before, made no such 
concessions to paganism, by unclean alliances, 
which are repugnant to a Christian individual or 
community? If the Church is not or never has 
been thus guilty, why did Christ Jesus foretell it 
of her through John's vision? So we conclude 
from all available evidence that Sodom is used as 
illustrating the sin and doom of the nominal 
Church, in so far as she professes to a formal dog- 
matic Christianity, but refuses to obey the ruling 
of the Kingdom of Christ. The evil of the system, 
or city, shall be destroyed; but the true Church of 
Christ shall come out of all this impurity, never 
again to fall into such sinful ways. vShe will be 
the Holy Bride, the new Jerusalem. 

We are also warned in our sinning, by the strange, 
and for long averted, doom of Nineveh, which was 
at one time "the greatest city in the world. " Her 
historic description certainly rivals that of her 
sister Babylon. We have first the graphic Scrip- 
ture account of the arrival of the prophet Jonah to 
warn these people of their impending destruction; 
of their prompt repentance; of Jonah's despond- 
ency because his prophecy had not been fulfilled ; 
of these people being allowed another period of 
existence. Nineveh must have returned to her 
wicked ways again after this mercy had been 



Afterwards 207 

granted her; for we next find the prophetic word 
that she shall yet be utterly and forever destroyed. 
Nahum foretells her fate thus, "The gates of the 
rivers are opened and the palace is dissolved." 
Also we read, "But with an overrunning flood He 
will make a full end of her place. " Again we read, 
"Behold I am against thee, saith Jehovah of Hosts, 
and I will bum her chariots in the smoke. " And 
He says, "There shall the fire devour thee." All 
these words surely signify destruction by flood and 
fire. What do we find to have actually taken place ? 
We know that she was a joyous and gay city, little 
given to conscience-stricken forebodings; more 
thoughtless and worldly than rebelliously wicked, 
though very wicked she certainly was. So she 
took little account of religion and laughed gaily at 
solemn prophecy. Had not Jonah warned them 
in vain, and wept beneath his gourd-covered booth 
at their preservation from destruction ? Have we 
not been just as thoughtlessly wicked and godless, 
and do we not still live ? True, still another threat 
hung over their laughter-loving city ; but why 
borrow trouble? The threat said that flood and 
fire would one day come to their undoing, but until 
then they need fear no enemy. Well was she 
made flood-proof by the strongest of brick and 
cement walls. She thought herself secure, and 
laughed and scorned a seemingly reluctant fate. 
And doubtless poor disappointed Jonah became 
a standing joke with her people. But in God's 



208 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

own time, He began to loosen the clouds of the 
heavens, till they began to pour out their waters 
over that land which was drained by the river 
Tigris on which Nineveh was so well situated. 
Steadily but surely rose the waters of the river. 
Up and up they rose, and in their tempestuous 
haste they beat and beat against those man-made 
walls of security until great portions became loos- 
ened and gave way, making place for Jehovah's 
avenging floods to enter. Up in the palace stands 
the King of Nineveh, with eyes wide and full of 
startled horror. Outside on the tossing floods float 
the ships of the enemies, and on land wait their 
armies. The Medes and the Persians are waiting 
for their long-desired prey. Still the King stands 
with frightened eyes until conviction of immediate 
doom enters his soul. We think we see him turn in 
terrified but resolute haste to his people, demand- 
ing that fires should be set burning everywhere. 
Fire for everything which would burn: treasure, 
eunuchs, concubines, himself, his people; all pass 
away in this suicidal holocaust. Outside, the twin 
enemies waited while flood and fire completed their 
devastating work. When all was completed 
and the ruin was complete, still there remained 
one unfulfilled word of doom: Nineveh must be 
empty, void, waste. So, just as true to prophecy 
as floods and fires, we see the very ashes of Nineveh 
rising and leaving her dishonoured site. All that 
was left of treasure or gold or silver, with the ashes 



Afterwards 209 

of that great joyous city, wended its way down the 
prophetic flood, or wandered across the plain to 
enrich Babylon; born at the same time, in death 
they were not separated. Truly the thoughtless 
and gay and wicked are not secure from an aveng- 
ing God. Surely nothing in the lives of these 
people became them like their destruction. Spec- 
tacular and gay and worldly in life, and dramatic- 
ally spectacular even in dissolution. And scarcely 
less dramatic was the final fall of her greedy, 
worldly sister Babylon a little later. Nineveh is 
described as more irreligious, worldly, and gay; 
while Babylon had a formal religious life but was 
utterly wanting in true piety. This difference we 
may suppose made the difference in their doom. 
The one was soulless and godless, and death came 
swift and complete. The other had a little bit of 
soul, and a little belief in God, so died more slowly. 
Both perished because of their unrepentant state of 
wickedness. Zephaniah speaks of Nineveh thus: 
''This is the joyous City that dwelt carelessly 
and said in her heart, I am, and there is none be- 
sides me : how is she become a desolation, a place 
for beasts to lie down in ! every one that passes by 
her shall hiss and wag his hand. Woe to her that 
is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing City! 
She obeyed not the voice, she received not correc- 
tion [or instruction], she trusted not in Jehovah; 
she drew not near to her God. Her princes in the 
midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are 
14 



2IO If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

ravening wolves, they leave nothing until to- 
morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous 
persons; her priests have profaned the Sanctuary 
and they have done violence to the law. Jehovah 
said to her, Only fear thou Me, receive correction 
[or instruction], so her dwelling shall not be cast off 
according to all that I have appointed concerning 
her; but they rose early and corrupted all their 
doings." This is why she so utterly perished. 
This illustrative city seems to represent worldly 
Christendom. Her sphere of life seems to be out- 
side of formal religious systems, and also outside 
of commercial systems. It seems to be covered 
by that phase of life which we now term Society, 
or Social life. It seems to cover all our thoughtless 
gaiety, our extravagance and selfishness. It 
covers all our love of fine and gaudy clothing and 
household appointments, and luxury of all de- 
scriptions. It covers our thoughtlessness of the 
needs of others, our utter lack of even formal re- 
ligion, our tendency to sneer at simple holiness and 
true piety as being fanatical. It also covers our 
growing and constant desire for amusement of some 
description. If we attend Church service, or any 
branch thereof, we want to be entertained. We 
expect our preachers to be interesting rather than 
corrective ; educative in a literary way, rather than 
instructive towards holiness. Our laws are good, 
but there is much to be desired in the legal body 
by whom they are applied to questions of right and 



Afterwards 211 

wrong. If one have much experience with such, 
the appellation of the ''Ravening Wolves" shall 
not be found to be mere abusive description. It 
will become a revelation to an innocent and inex- 
perienced admirer of our common law and its 
avenues of application. Surely our priests, many 
of them chosen for their learning or oratorical 
ability, are among those who lightly break God's 
law; and our prophets (or teachers) have proven 
themselves many times to be treacherous to the 
true teachings of Christ the Son of God. In our 
worldly phase we are not now fit to continue to 
live, nor shall we. This phase shall never enter 
the Holy City ; it is too selfish and in its selfishness 
it is too cruel to Christ's little brothers and sisters. 
Though the aristocratic princes be loud and mighty 
sounding like ''Roaring Lions," they shall not 
enter into the Holy City, the City whose ruling is, 
"In Honour preferring One Another." Also this 
phase of our sinning has a deep stain of Guilt upon 
it, in that it causes our religious life to be insincere 
and quite lacking in vital Godliness; and it is also 
the chief cause of the terrible uncleanness of our 
commercial life. The desire to outdo our fellows 
in tawdry showiness is, I believe, generally granted 
to be the cause of most of this selfish, dishonest, 
Cainlike sinning, of which Commerce is Guilty. 
Oh, we are spiritual imbeciles in our foolish view- 
point! What lasting good is there in a gaudy 
vulgar tawdriness of living? What doth it profit 



212 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

a man, if he gain the all-worldly magnificence of 
house and clothing, if his spiritual nature dies ? 

Off the coast of ancient Phoenicia, partly on 
a little island, and partly on the adjacent mainland, 
lay the illustrious and gifted city of Tyre. Differ- 
ent in character and experience to the other typical 
cities of her day she certainly was ; but in this very 
difference lay her gifts, and also her danger. 
The names of Phoenicia and Tyre and Sidon 
stand out clearly in ancient history as synonyms 
of Commerce. The people of Tyre had the gift 
peculiar to all truly great leaders of people : that of 
utilizing the skill and talents and natural advan- 
tages of others less worldly-wise, in increasing their 
own power. These she courted and incorporated 
into herself to her own great advantage. She 
grew so rich and influential b};^ this method that 
she considered herself to be in Godlike security. 
In her geographically advantageous situation she 
became the centre of commerce between the peoples 
whose States and cities lay behind her, and those 
which lay around and beyond the Great Sea on the 
coast of which she had built herself a strong posi- 
tion. Thus was she greatly gifted. In these very 
great natural and acquired advantages lay her 
danger, and her danger was twofold. She, through 
the selfish methods which she came to use, became 
very dishonest and corrupt. She became so 
wicked that she had to die. She was not consid- 
ered by God, the Great Judge, to be good enough 



Afterwards 213 

for her holy office; so the sentence of destruction 
was pronounced upon her. But she died hard. 
She was destroyed by the second of her great 
dangers. The first brought it upon her ; the second 
was the means used. She became in danger from 
the covetous ambition of the other cities and States 
with which she was commercially connected. She 
became the object of much strife. She was bat- 
tered by almost unparalleled sieges, attacked by 
enemy after enemy for long years, yet withstand- 
ing capture or destruction; at last her strength 
diminished, her hands grew feeble, and she is 
Queen of the Seas no more, her ships are a dream of 
the past. She became a "fitting place for a few 
fisherfolk to live in, and stretch their nets on her 
rocks." God had said, '*I will make thee a bare 
rock ; thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets ; 
thou shalt be built no more. " And so it came to 
pass. To-day I believe there is a small town or 
village on the site, but bearing no relation what- 
ever to ancient Tyre, and having no significance, 
as her site had been long desolated before this little 
gathering of houses came into being. We must 
read the prophetic description of Tyre before we 
can understand the cause of her destruction and 
the process used to bring it about; and also before 
we can correctly draw our intended lesson from her 
experience. We find that Jehovah made unique 
statements regarding this City, which we should 
try, for our own benefit, to understand. He says 



214 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

to Tyre: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways, from the 
days that thou wast created, till unrighteousness 
was found in thee. By the abundance of thy 
traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, 
and thou hast sinned. Therefore have I cast thee 
as profane out of the mountain of God; and I 
have destroyed thee, O covering Cherub, from the 
midst of the stones of fire. By the multitude of 
thy iniquities, in the unrighteousness of thy traffic, 
thou hast profaned thy Sanctuaries ; therefore have 
I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee, it 
hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to 
ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that 
behold thee. . . . Thou art become a terror 
[or destruction] and thou shalt never more have 
any being." We find no word of reproof for the 
trading instinct of Tyre; on the contrary she was 
said to be a ' * Covering Cherub from the midst of 
the stones of fire. " Jehovah had also said of her, 
"Thou sealest up the measure [or sum] full of 
wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou wast in 
Eden, the Garden of God; every precious stone was 
thy covering. " No greater praise could be given 
a city of souls than this description, or explana- 
tion, of her position in human experience. Cheru- 
bim were those angels who ministered to the needs 
of the race in the manifold forms of service which 
Jehovah required of them. One might well call 
them * ' The Executive of Jehovah. ' ' These people 
of Tyre were said by Jehovah to have originally 



Afterwards 215 

been of this Holy Company, in their character and 
office of serving humanity; and that in some way 
the rest of humanity were protected by them. It 
was also said that Tyre was originally set in the 
midst of precious stones. These are generally 
conceded to be leading divine principles. It is 
certainly difficult for the ordinary mind to find 
these descriptions consistent with the character of 
Tyre, as we know her; or to think of Commerce — as 
we know it — as a covering Cherub, protecting the 
people, and resting its holy service to mankind on 
God-given, divine principles; or to think of the 
origin of Commerce as being in the Garden of God. 
It were far easier to imagine that it grew from the 
Bottomless Pit, and was founded on essentially 
Satanic principles. But God's Word is always 
right; and often when we in our weakness of per- 
ception think that it must be untrue, that is usu- 
ally the time when we find it to be scientifically, 
historically, and morally true. So in this case, 
between the Glory of Eden and the Black Darkness 
of the Pit, lies the experience of Tyre and her 
antitype (or synonym) Commerce. Tyre has 
passed away into her unrepentant destiny. So 
shall modern Commerce if she repents not. Shall 
she be moved to a more righteous fulfilment of her 
holy office? Do we not see that there is a tend- 
ency to take from the hands of the selfish few that 
which is, or should be, a Holy Office? One thing 
we do know, that is, that the present condition of 



2i6 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

commercial systems and usages cannot by any 
chance enter into the Holy City. So it means 
radical renovation, or destruction, and placing of 
its holier form in a holier setting. But what and 
where was The Garden of God? Suppose we 
search for it. When God finished the creation of 
the habitable earth and peopled it. He pronounced 
it to be good. He filled it with good things for the 
special benefit of man, and made all things sub- 
ject to him. The earth is a comparatively vast 
place. Men, of necessity, soon began to wander 
apart into widely distant locations. As time 
passed men began to desire or require more variety 
of the earth's products for their sustenance, or for 
their comfort. We might have a surplus of some 
desirable product; our brother at some distant 
spot might have none of it, yet he might desire or 
need some of it. Again, our brother might have 
that in more than sufficient quantity for his own 
use, which I lacked, and could not produce in my 
location. So we began to exchange products for 
each other's benefit, as well as for our own. Ex- 
change was born in the very Garden of Eden, in 
God's Garden, and is desirable for mutual need 
and happiness. We may easily now perceive how 
the thought of receiving and distributing dep6ts 
came into being, and still be in the Garden of God. 
We may easily see how Tyre became, on a large 
scale, such a dep6t. She would thus serve the race 
as ministering Cherub. And as long as justice, 



Afterwards 217 

honesty, kindness, and truth were her motives, 
she had vital principles beneath her foundations. 
She could not die. But the taint of Cain left a 
tendency in humanity, which was soon to despoil 
God of the beauty of His original Eden. Selfish- 
ness crept in, and left in its serpent-trail unholy 
thoughts in the hearts of men. Their ideals 
became sensualized, and their vision of holiness 
bedimmed. This is why Tyre became desolate. 
She corrupted her Holy Office of. Bear ye one 
another's burdens, of Love one another, of What- 
soever ye would that men should do unto you, that 
do ye also unto them, into an unnatural and selfish 
system, which to-day bears in its aspect more rela- 
tion to the Pit than it does to the Garden of God. 
In her original office Tyre was the complement of 
Jerusalem, whom she came to hate. Jenisalem 
was to provide for the spiritual needs of the people. 
It was she from whom was to proceed the Law of 
Life. It was Tyre from whom men expected to 
obtain anything pertaining to physical life that was 
desired or required. In their original state of 
purity both cities dwelt amidst the precious stones 
in the Garden of God. Both sinned afterwards. 
Jerusalem awaits renewing. The location of the 
centre of Commerce has been finally removed from 
Tyre to the still greater geographical centre, the 
Great Metropolis of the World, London. If the 
great system of Commerce, which is now quite 
world-wide in its operations, does not repent and 



2i8 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

do her first works, she shall no doubt have a 
change of site, and in her present iniquitous mode 
of traffic be utterly and forever desolated. The 
time must come very soon, when Christ will insist 
that the receiving and distributing of the plentiful 
and wonderful variety of the earth's products be 
kindly and honestly and justly done, hy some 
method; perhaps by a national office of this great 
need amongst our people. There are ** little clouds 
the size of a man's hand" which denote the ap- 
proach of this rain of general plenty, not only in 
our nation, but amongst the international families ; 
and the kindly brotherliness of nation toward 
nation. Just now, if one can only see the tragic 
surface of things he will surely doubt that love and 
justice are near, or that Hope has much reason to 
grow strong and soar above us. And yet under- 
neath the awful tragedy of the present un- 
precedented struggle, do not Hope and Peace lie 
brooding lovingly? So, we must not be discour- 
aged, but work as individuals, for national and 
international purity of purpose and brotherly help- 
fulness. We may all hope for the day when the 
Church shall be purified and enlarged until every 
knee shall bow to God Most High in obedient 
worship and when our purified commercial sys- 
tems shall reach out and supply the needs and 
chaste desires of all those who thus obediently bow 
to the Royal Law of God. This condition is 
actually The Kingdom of God on Earth, and its 



Afterwards 219 

King is the One Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
This Kingdom we can each hasten a Httle now. 
We have learned from Sodom the value of a few 
righteous souls. We had better take these tragic 
lessons to ourselves as we are instructed, and re- 
member that God is still living and awaiting our 
individual, national, and international decision. 

No city has had greater symbolic prominence, 
outside of Jerusalem, than the wonderful and 
ancient City of Babylon. We may suppose her 
to have been first built by that ambitious and war- 
like person, Nimrod. But the magnificent Baby- 
lon of History was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar, and 
in keeping with the proud, self-indulgent extra- 
vagance of his character. Much thought and skill 
were brought to bear in her making. Her great 
walls were marvels of skill and labour. Her 
palaces and dwellings were splendid and magni- 
ficent. Her place of worship was certainly more 
than in keeping with these. The Temple of Belus, 
or Jupiter, is described by Herodotus as covering a 
square of two stadia, or a quarter of a mile. We 
are told,' *'In the midst of which arose the cele- 
brated tower, to which both the same writer and 
Strabo give an elevation of one .stadium or 660 
feet; and the same measure at its base." The 
larger palace, we are told, was eight miles in cir- 
cimiference, and within it were the celebrated 
hanging gardens on the top terrace of which was a 
» Watson. 



220 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

reservoir of water brought up from the river below 
by which the garden was watered. Situated in a 
very garden of fertility she was rich beyond 
realization. She was, or became, arrogant, oppres- 
sive, and very wicked. Her doom was foretold, 
and it fell on her drunken soul. We need scarcely 
remind ourselves of the dramatic entrance of 
Cyrus into those sin-stained and debauched 
palaces. The hand of God had written her down- 
fall on her own walls. It was now too late for her 
to awaken ; she could not repent ; she was too nearly 
imbecile with her drunkenness for that. It takes 
wide-awake sanity and well-matured thought for 
effective repentance. Babylon was past this 
condition. Repentance long despised withdrew, 
and destruction and disgrace stayed to keep Baby- 
lon company in her lingering death. Her wound 
was so great that from the day of the entrance of 
Cyrus, she began to die the death from which no 
efforts afterwards were found to be sufficient for 
her resurrection. Alexander the Great, it is said, 
attempted to restore her to her former glory, and 
designed to make her the metropolis of a universal 
empire. The angel of death prevented this am- 
bitious conqueror from carrying out this scheme. 
And now she lies quietly in a dreamless sleep from 
which there shall be no awakening. Never does 
she mutter in her sleep, excepting when the ghost 
of her suicidal past arises from history and points 
to her desolation and disgrace. Is her experience 



Afterwards 221 

nothing to us? Is the howling of the wolves and 
jackals in the place of her old palaces no warning 
to us to-day? Is it true that as a man soweth, so 
also shall he reap? We may well ask, why did 
destruction and desolation come upon her so 
utterly and so inexorably? For in whatsoever 
answer we find to this question, we must also find 
our own warning to-day; for spiritual Babylon 
has not yet quite fallen into desolation. Before 
she had been desolated, when she stood haughtily 
in the pride of her magnificence and great riches, 
Isaiah had been told by Jehovah to take up this 
parable against the King of Babylon and say, * ' How 
hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city [or the 
exactress] ceased ? Jehovah hath broken the staff 
of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers that smote 
the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, that 
ruled the nations in anger with a persecution that 
none restrained." We judge from this passage 
that Babylon oppressed her people and also exacted 
too much from them; or perhaps the oppression 
was in the shape of exactions. We find that she 
smote the people with a continual stroke and that 
she did it in wrath. And we find that she ruled 
the peoples in an angry persecution which none 
restrained. If we read the history of the semi- 
paganized Christian Church from the time of her 
unholy union with paganism until the last few 
hundred years, we shall easily see that this is 
absolutely fulfilled in her extortions from her ad- 



222 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

herents and in her cruel persecution of those whom 
she tried to force into her fold. And this descrip- 
tion would cover all such persecution in the Church 
or by the Church, either before the separation of 
the Greek branch or the Protestant from her, or 
after the separation in any of the three; and we 
know that all have been guilty in more or less 
degree. So we had better not cast stones at spirit- 
ual Babylon ; not just yet. We are sure that she is 
yet with us or in us, because she was to fall with a 
mighty fall and it was to just precede the coming 
of our Lord to His Kingdom. Indeed we may 
conclude that she is the greatest obstacle to His 
imminent reign. So, whatever she is accused of 
we shall be wise to search about for these same sins 
in order to remove them and let the King of Glory 
in. In Revelation she is accused, or rather 
described, as "Her that corrupted the earth with 
her fornications. " She was accused of this odious 
crime with the nations, and also of making the 
merchants of the earth rich by the power of her 
wantonness (or luxur>^). Has the Church ever 
used her holy office for degrading purposes? Has 
she used her form of spiritual power for things 
merely sensual and worldly? Has she been in 
large measure a system of luxurious living? The 
Babylonians and Chaldeans generally are summed 
up by historians as being guilty of "idolatry, 
tyranny, oppression, pride, covetousness, drunken- 
ness, falsehood, and general wickedness." We 



Afterwards 223 

should remember for our comfort that Babylon 
and the Christian Church are not identical in 
meaning, but that she is only the sinful conduct of 
the organization known by that name. Where we 
are not guilty we need take no offence. We 
believe with all our heart that a great measure of 
the holy ideals and conduct of the Holy City, The 
Bride of Christ, is now in our midst, and that these 
ideals are constantly increasing and rising, and our 
endeavour towards their realization is ever and 
everywhere strengthening. But seeing this hope- 
ful sign, we should try all the more to knock the 
false foundations from under this phase of our 
religious profession wherever we may see it ; and so 
shall this wicked city fall into utter desolation, 
even as her wicked hut religious type fell. The 
modem mind does not take very kindly to perse- 
cution in religious matters to-day. The spirit of 
persecution may not be so dead as she seems. But 
as this spirit is founded on the doctrine of Satan 
and not on Christ's doctrine of brotherly considera- 
tion one towards another, it must soon fall, even 
in spirit. If we sum up the accusations against 
Babylon we shall find that dishonesty, pride of 
heart, self-security, arrogance, adultery, exacting 
measures, and a persecuting spirit were hers. If 
we free ourselves as individuals and as sects and 
denominations from all these sins, there will be no 
spiritual Babylon left. She will gradually become 
a ruin. It depends on individual and collective 



224 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

effort. And if we have not gotten ourselves out of 
her when she falls, we shall be ruined in her ruin. 
We need not point too fixedly at any one sect, for 
we find that Babylon was divided into three parts 
before the wrath of God was poured out on her. 
So we must not be too severe on the Church of the 
dark and middle ages; those were days of coarse 
ignorance; but to-day we none of us have the 
slightest excuse for being guilty of these wicked 
offences against God and our fellow human beings. 
Better things are required of us to-day. Babylon 
was to fall quickly when she did fall. "In one 
hour she shall be made desolate. " May it not be 
that, if we pray earnestly for assistance in this 
matter, we shall have the Holy Spirit to convict 
and convince our people of sin, that all three great 
cities of the Christian Church shall with one 
accord acknowledge their sins of the past, repent 
of all their evil ways, and turn with one accord to 
the simple, obedient belief in Jesus Christ our 
Saviour. Then He shall see of the long and weary 
travail of His soul and He shall at last be satisfied. 
Then shall He be our Peace. 

Across a sandy desert away towards the western 
sea, resting amidst and upon the hills and valle^^s 
of Palestine, and lying some few hundred miles 
away from the deserted site of Babylon, is still 
situated the equally ancient city of Jerusalem; 
most notable of all cities that have been, or per- 
haps shall be, in the experience of the human race. 



Afterwards 225 

Originally, or as we first find her noted, she was 
called Salem, or Peace. While being occupied by 
the Jebusites, she was called Jebus, which word 
means, "Which treads under foot, or contemns." 
When these Jebusites were displaced by the Israel- 
ites, she became known as Jerusalem. We find 
that this word means "The vision, or inheritance, 
of peace. " She is often called the City of David, 
and also the Holy City. During the reigns of 
David and Solomon she became prodigiously rich. 
This was the hour of her greatest national glory. 
Troublous times came to her from "internal di- 
visions and foreign wars, wicked and tyrannical 
princes, and, last of all, the crime most offensive to 
Heaven and the one least to be expected among so 
favoured a people, led to a series of calamities, 
through the long period of nine hundred years to 
which no other city or nation can furnish a parallel. 
That the account of her falling away and the 
consequences thereof is familiar to us all, takes 
nothing from the sorrowful misery of the story. 
But it certainly is very difficult for us to under- 
stand this troubled history of fall and repentance 
or punishment, repeated time after time, when we 
remember that none knew so well as they that 
obedience to Jehovah invariably brought them 
peace and prosperity, and that continued dis- 
obedience brought punishment. We wonder they 
so often forgot it. As Jerusalem is the most 
prominent of all typical or illustrative cities, and is 

IS 



226 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

constantly used for reproof, warning, and also (we 
rejoice to note) for hope to the soul of the sincere 
believer, we should try to find in her peculiar 
experience that which shall apply to our present- 
day experience and responsibility. We find that 
at first she was a city of Peace. It was at the 
original city of Salem, her most ancient part, that 
Abraham met Melchizedek (or King of Right- 
eousness), who was also priest of God Most High. 
This great King and Priest blessed Abraham in the 
name of the Most High God; and Abraham gave 
to him one tenth of all he had. So we find Jeru- 
salem at this early date, and we know not for how 
long before, to have been the chosen place of God's 
peculiar manifestations to men through some 
especially appointed line of priesthood. Of what 
kind the priesthood was before Abraham's call 
and his meeting with this great personage and being 
blessed and appointed to especial office by him, 
we know but little ; but we do know that we do not 
again meet with any mention of this kind of 
priesthood, except in prophecy, until Christ Jesus 
the Messiah came to us, being of this same priest- 
hood. It is said of Him : 

Thou art a priest for ever 
After the order of Melchizedek. 

We judge from Salem being the sanctuary of this 
priesthood, and from her name meaning Peace, 
that she was occupied originally by righteous and 



Afterwards 227 

therefore peaceful persons. We find that the 
Jebusites who conquered or overran her were a 
warlike people. As their name, the Salemites, 
signifies Peace, we may well presume that these 
warlilce people met with little or no resistance 
from the peaceful Salemites. Not understanding 
the holiness of peace and peaceful ideals the 
Jebusites would despise them, but would tolerate 
their harmless presence; and perhaps if we fully 
understand it, in their harmlessness lay their 
safety. At any rate, we find this little Holy City 
still existing within the larger wicked city held 
there by the hand of God Most High, until His 
Priest officially invested Abraham in his office of 
Father of the Faithful and spiritual leader of a 
new dispensation. We must conclude that this 
Great Priest then withdrew from the sight of man- 
kind. Of the particular form of the pre-Abra- 
hamic period of religion, we do not find much 
description. That there was at least an oral law 
to be obeyed, even by Cain, is certain. We find 
the presence of law broken or obeyed from Adam 
until Abraham ; and in this first vision of Jerusalem 
(Salem) do we not find it in much the same condi- 
tion as when Christ so strongly reproved her ? She 
had a few who would listen to His Word. He had 
His Salem, although we grant that she was small 
in comparison with the Rulers of the greater city; 
and by this illustrative lesson we may hope that 
at His coming acknowledged presence amongst 



22% If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

us, He shall still have a little Holy City within 
the greater organization, which is warlike and 
overbearing in its treatment of the jew who 
are attaining to true citizenship of the coming 
City of the King of Righteousness. ''Neverthe- 
less, w^hen the Son of man cometh, shall He find 
the faith on the earth?" As He found a few on 
whom to build the foundation of His Kingdom 
when He first came, shall He not also find a small 
obedient City now, which shall be the strong 
leavening power to raise fallen humanity into that 
state which now exists only in our highest ideals? 
Ultimately all that is not of this high character 
shall be cast out, and Jerusalem must be restored 
to her pristine holiness when her Priest was King 
of Righteousness and her name was Peace. As 
in herself, so must it be in her antitype, the spirit- 
ual Jerusalem, or The Church of the Christian era. 
We find that when David took this city away 
from these intruders, the Jebusites, he built a 
new one which he called The City of David; 
wherein he built a royal palace and the Temple 
of the Lord God. Throughout his reign and that 
of his son Solomon, this city was the centre of a 
great prosperity. Those were glorious days for 
Jerusalem. The historians tell us that ' ' universal 
peace, unmeasured wealth, the wisdom and 
clemency of the prince, and the worship of the 
true God marked Jerusalem, above every city, as 
enjoying the presence and the especial favour of 



Afterwards 229 

the Almighty." It seems absolutely marvellous 
that they should choose to be deprived of this 
matchless position after having once tasted of its 
advantages. But worldly success usually brings 
haughtiness of bearing; and so it was with her. 
As metropolis of the whole twelve states, she 
grew oppressive to the ten, which did not come 
directly in contact with her border. These re- 
volted against her insolence, and left only Judah 
and Benjamin to her possession. Added to this 
came siege after siege, dispersion, desolation, and 
ruin. Still she survived it all and yet lives await- 
ing her cleansing and renewing. It is unnecessary 
to quote much to prove that she fell into sin, as 
this is the main theme of the old Scriptures, and 
references to it also run all through the new. Our 
Lord, in His day, pronounced seven woes upon her, 
and also foretold the razing of her houses and the 
Temple. First, He accuses her religionists of not 
entering Heaven themselves nor allowing any one 
else to enter. As our Lord said that the Kingdom 
was within us, or words to that effect, we conclude 
that He accused these men of influencing other 
souls to be unholy; to be very religious, but quite 
disobedient to the Royal Law of God. Secondly, 
He accuses these religionists of proselytizing by 
every known means, and then making their 
converts twofold more the sons of hell than them- 
selves. This is a strong and far-reaching accusation 
in its present-day application. Thirdly, He seems 



230 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

to accuse them of placing the fear of gold before 
the fear of God. Taking this lesson in its general 
bearing, is it not the dread of financial loss which 
causes the greater part of our breaking of God's 
Law of Justice, kindness and truth? In the fourth 
place Christ warns them against the placing of 
emphasis on trifling ordinances which are lawful 
enough in themselves, but says that they had done 
these and had neglected the weightier matters of 
the law, justice and mercy and faith. He says, 
"Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat and 
swallow the camel." In the fifth place, He says 
to these, ''Ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of 
the platter, but within they are full from extortion 
and excess." He demands that these defilements 
be removed, and identifies with uncleanness both 
extortion and excess. Is our organization guilty 
of any of this uncleanness ? Is the popular Church 
the kindly home of the poor man, or is the prosper- 
ous man more welcome, because more suitable for 
extortion? We do not accuse, we only ask the 
question. In the sixth place, Christ is exceedingly 
vehement in His accusation against them. They 
are, as He finds them, full of hypocrisy and in- 
iquity. If all are free from this charge to-day, we 
are nearer the Kingdom of Heaven than many of 
us suppose. In the seventh, we find an awful 
denunciation of those who while pretending to be 
sorry for what their fathers had done were doing 
worse themselves; and who He knew would 



Afterwards 231 

continue to destroy all who came to them preaching 
repentance and the simple obedient life. He ends 
with a pathetic cry of sorrow over unrepentant 
Jerusalem in the sad words of prophecy, ''Behold 
your house is left unto you desolate. For I say 
unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye 
shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name 
of the Lord. See ye not all these things ? Verily I 
say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone 
upon another, that shall not be thrown down." 
And so it came to pass. The story of the siege and 
razing of Jerusalem is not pleasant reading for the 
modem mind to dwell upon. But as she is con- 
stantly held up as a type of the Church of Christen- 
dom we had better be warned by her catastrophe. 
Die, she did not, she could not; she cannot die 
until her destiny as an object lesson is completed. 
The few have always been in evidence to save her 
from the utter destruction which fell upon Sodom 
and Gomorrah, Nineveh, and Babylon. Tyre, 
who in her spirit of jealousy rejoiced over the 
calamities of Jerusalem, was desolated down to 
the bare rocks, and for ever removed from her site. 
But because she was a cherub ministering to the 
wants of the children of the race, her spirit was 
preserved and transplanted to the isles and coast 
lands of western Europe, where she might duly 
spread herself in a kindly ministry over all the 
earth. Just about this same time, the site of the 
spiritual City of Jerusalem was also transferred 



232 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

to these same western isles and coast lands, from 
whence she shall radiate the Light of the Kingdom 
until ''The Kingdom of the world has become the 
Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." Truly 

God moves in a mysterious way 

His wonders to perform, 
He plants His footsteps in the sea 

And rides upon the storm. 
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense. 

But trust Him for His grace; 
Behind a frowning providence 

He hides a smiling face. 
Blind tmbeUef is sure to err, 

And scan His work in vain; 
God is His own interpreter 

And He will make it plain. 

We feel that we can better accept the sense of 
these lines by the poet Cowper, when we see that 
God is now ripening His plans for our future 
benefit, and has always been designing experiences 
which shall ensure our future holiness and happi- 
ness, if we will but have it so. 

If we are a creation of special interest to a more 
spiritual race of beings, it should give us reason for 
exceeding carefulness as to how we fulfil our destiny 
to-day, this day of the parting of the ways. As 
we have before noted, our present epoch from the 
Reformation until to-day and later, runs parallel 
to that which just preceded the arrival of the 
Messiah. Both held the office of preparation for 
His coming. Their difference lies in the difference 



Afterwards 233 

of the Kingdoms, or Churches, which followed 
each epoch. The first was preparing for a partial 
failure of the Gospel of the Kingdom; the second, 
or present one, is preparing for the complete 
entrance of Christ and His Kingdom. We should 
therefore expect to find a proportionally greater 
ratio of goodness to-day than Christ found at His 
first appearance amongst us. And notwithstand- 
ing much that looks very discouraging on the 
surface we must see that men's ideals were never 
so generally high and pure as they are to-day. We 
might go into details of all the social problems to 
prove that men are working earnestly Heavenward, 
but we do not need to do so, as these subjects are 
constantly before the public eye. But that these 
helpful and cleansing movements are everjrwhere 
present, is a sure token of His Presence. So we 
may hopefully presume that we are now helping 
to prepare for the new regime; and while many 
outside of the organized Church are working 
earnestly in this way, the Church should try to 
fill her holy ofiice consistently, by putting forth 
all her efforts towards this one great issue. Every- 
thing done in our religious, social, or commercial 
experience is either righteous or it is wicked. It 
tends either towards Heaven or Hell. All our 
thoughts and operations must pass through the 
same judgment as did those of these cities which 
we have been briefly noting. Outside of Jerusalem 
to the east lies the valley of Jehoshaphat; almost 



234 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

touching it, but to the south of the city, lies the 
valley of Hinnom: the first name signifying, *'The 
judgment of God" or "Jehovah judgeth." The 
other has come to signify ''A place of destruction." 
This latter place has a horrible record of the 
heathenish practice of passing the young children 
through the fires of the god Moloch. When 
Josiah came to the throne of Judah this was the 
practice of Jerusalem. This King changed this 
horror-filled valley into a means of cleansing the 
adjacent city. He caused all the filth and all the 
refuse and dead bodies of animals or of criminals 
who were not considered fit for proper burial, to be 
thrown into this valley and there consumed by fire. 
It was set alight and the fire was kept continually 
burning by the constant flow of debris which was 
daily thrown into it. To assist combustion brim- 
stone was added to it. And thus Jerusalem became 
a more sanitary city. Thus was this valley of the 
sinful and murderous practice of a paganized 
people turned into a great blessing by consuming 
all uncleanness and corruption. On this tragic 
beginning and wholesome ending is our conception 
of that which we term ''Hell" built. When an 
illustration is used as this one has been, it is not 
only honesty but wise, to follow the illustration 
closely. So we find that the old Church in her 
most idolatrous days passed her children through 
the fires of Moloch in this place; when she became 
repentant and in holier mood, she used it to cleanse 



Afterwards 235 

herself from all her filth and to consume dead 
bodies which were not entitled to decent burial. 
We find that no person or animal was thrown in there 
alive. If we follow this illustration precisely we 
shall find that there have been wresters of Scripture 
at work as regards this symbolic place and our old 
hereditary conception of the Place of Punishment. 
This place has been the topic of many lurid and 
vindictive orations in the past, but has almost 
ceased to be spoken of to-day. It is, however, 
worth prayerful and unprejudiced reconsideration 
in the light of modem freedom to seek after the 
truth. Jehovah reproves the people of Jerusalem 
strongly for the practice of this abominable pagan 
rite, thus, ''And they have built the high places of 
Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hin- 
nom, to bum their sons and daughters in the fire; 
which I commanded not, neither came it into My 
heart. " If the type is for our instruction so also is 
the reproof. We had better be careful how we 
accuse God of cruelty ; how we affirm that He does 
that which He Himself denies that it ever came 
into His heart to do. All the references to punish- 
ment for sin are of two kinds : the one direct and 
definite, viz., ''The soul that sinneth it shall die"; 
the other figurative, as that of being restrained 
from running in a particular race, and as illustrated 
in the well-known passage, "And these shall go 
away into eternal punishment," which last two 
words are well known to be not precisely trans- 



236 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

lated; in which sHght imperfection rests our heredi- 
tary conception! of the home prepared for all those 
who do not perhaps think as we do, or who sin in 
some other way. But this too shall pass away 
with other unkind conceptions. Sin is everywhere 
promised punishment, and unless repented of, it is 
also promised death. Punishment and ultimate 
death is certainly the destiny of disobedient cities 
and souls. But eternally continued torture for 
city or soul is not taught without mistranslation 
or wresting oj the Scriptures and misreading the 
Hand of Destiny. *' Neither came it into My 
heart," says Jehovah. But suppose we think a 
little more closely of these typical valleys; now 
that most of us have ceased to burn our sons and 
daughters in the one, and are bringing into promin- 
ence the other. We had better remember that we 
are now being judged in the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
the valley of Decision. We decide on all matters 
in this valley ; that which is wicked in our practice 
must be sifted out and thrown into the companion 
valley for destruction; then shall we be clean 
enough to be a part of the New City which is ab- 
solutely free from filth and corruption. 

In Christ's last words to us in the vision of John, 
He speaks of the conditions of citizenship under 
which we may enter; all other conditions shall be 
thrown into Gehenna, into the valley of the son 
of Hinnom. Before considering the conditions of 
the New City in detail, we wish to briefly draw 



Afterwards 237 

attention to the lessons left us by Christ Jesus 
through John in the descriptions and destinies of 
seven other cities of the Christian era. We shall 
no doubt find the individual failings and virtues 
of these to be typical of the general failings and 
virtues of the whole Christian Church. And since 
these accounts are ours to read, they are also ours 
for warning, instruction, and comfort; and they 
also help to prove to us that God and His Son do 
not threaten or comfort in vain. ''Seek ye out of 
the Book of Jehovah and read; no one of these 
shall be missing, none shall want her mate; for 
my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it 
hath gathered them. And he hath cast the lot 
of them and his hand hath divided unto them by 
line." Again we read, *'I testify unto every man 
that heareth the words of the prophecy of this 
Book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall 
add unto him the plagues which are written in this 
Book; and if any man shall take away from the 
words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take 
away his part from the tree of life and out of the 
holy city, which are written in this Book." From 
these closing Messianic Words to us, we find that 
this last Book of the Scriptures is a description of 
the Holy City and of the Tree of Life, and our 
Lord warns us to take it just as it stands with 
its lessons, warnings, and prophecies. It specially 
contains the instructions to the Church concerning 
that which shall be found fit for the City to be, fit 



238 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

for the continued life, and that which is not; and to 
prove to a faithless generation that He is not dead 
indeed, but risen to His throne in the heavens, 
He gives these seven names to prove Himself with. 
We shall do well to heed their present-day warning 
and also their comforting assurance. 

Ephesus was a very great and rich city, and of 
great political importance as metropolis of Asia 
Minor. Its Temple of Diana, ' * whom all Asia 
worshipped, ' ' is world-famous . This Temple ' ' was 
adorned with one hundred and twenty-seven 
columns of Parian marble, each of a single shaft 
and sixty feet high, which formed one of the seven 
wonders of the world." There is also said to be 
the remains of a magnificent theatre which could 
easily seat twenty thousand people. But to-day 
her desolation is complete. Less than a hundred 
years ago, a traveller in those regions found the 
population to consist of ''a Turk, whose shed we 
occupied, his Arab servant, and a single Greek." 
Also he found some Turcomans tenting among the 
ruins. I believe there is to-day near by a small 
village; but not on the actual site of desolated 
Ephesus. Paul in his inimitable epistle to the 
Ephesians says to them : * ' So then ye are no more 
strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens 
with the saints and of the household of God, being 
built upon the foundation of the apostles and pro- 
phets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief comer 
stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed 



Afterwards 239 

together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, 
in whom ye also are builded together for a habita- 
tion of God in the Spirit." We may not take space 
for more of this loving and instructive epistle to 
this greatly-privileged portion of the early Church ; 
but we can easily conceive, as we read between the 
lines of the whole epistle, of the great hopefulness 
in Paul's heart regarding their future Christian 
experience; and so might it have been with them, 
had the}^ listened to his kindly warning to "be 
strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His 
might, " to ''put on the whole armour of God, that 
ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the 
devil." He seems to warn them against insidious 
foes, powers of darkness, wickedness in high or 
heavenly places. Did they heed his warning? 
Did they keep on the whole armour or only a part 
of it? Again we read a message to Ephesus, at a 
little later date, but not long enough afterwards to 
justify their lapse — if lapses can ever be justified. 
This time it is the Master of our souls' security, 
speaking to them through John. He says, *'I 
know thy works, and thy toil and stedfastness 
[or patience], and that thou canst not bear evil 
men, and didst try them that call themselves 
apostles and they are not, and didst find them 
false ; and thou hast stedfastness [or patience] and 
didst bear for My name's sake and hast not grown 
weary. But I have this against thee, that thou 
didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore 



240 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first 
works; or else I come to thee and will move thy 
candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." 
Paul lovingly warns them to be careful of that 
which he saw to be their weakness, earnest though 
they were. Christ gives full credit for a good begin- 
ning, but accuses them of wandering in their affec- 
tions from His holy precepts and commands, 
which they had at first listened to and obeyed. It 
is much easier to fall than to rise. This warning 
was ineffectual, the candlestick was removed, and 
Ephesus is to-day a Christless ruin. It is not 
sufficient that we begin and set out well on our 
journey Holy-City- wards, but we must continue 
to journey forward. We would draw from both 
these warnings, along with the descriptions of her 
wealth, magnificence, and her love of worldly 
pleasure and splendour, that these insidiously 
tempted her away from the love of the simple holy 
living that was taught to her as a token of the 
obedient faith in the Messiah, in allegiance to 
Whom they professed to be very earnest. They 
no doubt lost their separateness, by holding the 
two loves at the same time. In a case like this we 
find that Christ withdraws in favour of Mammon. 
He knows that we cannot serve both, and He told 
us that we could not do it. In their experience as 
a wealthy, splendour- and pleasure-loving people, 
we shall find our lesson from this old ruined city. 
Smyrna is the next city to whom Christ Jesus 



Afterwards 241 

addresses Himself through John. She also was 
"one of the finest cities in all the Levant." She 
was and is beautifully situated; was and is rich 
and commercially important. To-day she has a 
population of some hundreds of thousands, and is 
the chief city of Asia Minor. Why is her destiny 
so different from that of Ephesus, her sister? We 
must go to the Master's message to her to find out 
her secret, and see if we too cannot profit by her 
experience and example. He tells John to write 
thus' "These things saith the first and the last, 
who became dead and lived again: I know thy 
tribulation and poverty (but thou art rich), and 
the revilings of them that say they are Jews and 
they are not, but of the synagogue of Satan. Fear 
not the things which thou art about to suffer: 
behold the devil is about to cast some of you into 
prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have 
tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee the crown of life. He that hath 
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the 
churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt 
of the second death." There is no warning or 
reproof in this message, but only promise of the 
reward of life; that is, if these continued as they 
were then. Be ye faithful as you have already 
been, seems to be His word to them. Is not the 
same kindly and assuring message which is con- 
veyed in this promise to Smyrna also for the 
obedient portion of the Church of our day? Is 

z6 



242 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

there not promise of enlargement and continuity, 
expressed for it in Smyrna's enlargement and long- 
continued life and increasing vigour of being? 
**Be ye faithful/' the Word said. We conclude 
that she was not so much tempted by worldly 
pleasures as w^as her sister Ephesus. Perhaps she 
enjoyed a simpler kind of prosperity; more of a 
plentiful nature, than of an intricate and showy 
character. We may easily suppose this, as she is 
not described as like Ephesus in this way. That 
is the easiest and safest road to the Holy City, 
which lies between plenty and simplicity and is the 
surest way to the continued life of a city or a soul. 
The letter to Pergamum seems to indicate that 
many of her Christian people were true to the 
faith, and had kept themselves free from the pollu- 
tion into which some of their number had fallen. 
The accusation against the best members of this 
Church was, that they allowed the evil kind to 
pretend an acceptance of discipleship to Jesus 
Christ, and to bear His most Holy Name, while 
they were really trying to undermine His true 
doctrine. So He came to them with His two- 
edged sword, to divide the true members of His 
Church from those who were in reality working 
towards the upholding of Satan's reign. And the 
sword must have done its work effectively, for we 
find that she did not die. She still lives, and has 
still, I believe, some Christian churches (Greek) 
in her midst. She had enough of those who in- 



Afterwards 243 

sisted on the separated life to save her. We leam 
here that we cannot allow sects to pretend to the 
name of Christianity, and worship as such amongst 
us, unchallenged, who deny to our Saviour His 
true mission and present authority, as some do 
even to-day. These sap the vitality of our living 
faith. So the Church of the living, reigning Re- 
deemer Jesus Christ must to-day take the two- 
edged sword and make a clean-cut division, or she 
stands guilty of acquiescence in this insidious 
scheme of Satan against the fully accomplished 
reign of our Redeemer on earth in the renewed 
hearts of men. 

To Thyatira the warning came thus, *'I know 
thy works and thy love and faith and ministry and 
stedfastness [or patience], and that thy last works 
are more than thy first." But then they are 
accused of having in their midst the wicked woman 
Jezebel, who taught the people all sorts of pagan 
and unclean usages and doctrines. This typical 
Jezebel is to have great tribulation and her child- 
ren are to be killed. We all remember the part 
that the real idolatrous queen played, in the story 
which we read in sacred history, and we do not 
need to search further than the unity of the Chris- 
tian Church with the pagan Roman Church, to 
find her and from her to find her children. We 
may well conclude that all the pagan ideas and 
usages which were brought into the Church by 
Constantine in his clever scheme of affiliation, 



244 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

shall be rooted out and killed by Christ and His 
Holy Executive. He says, "And all the churches 
shall know that I am He that searches the reins 
and hearts, and I will give unto each one of you 
according to your works." After this comes the 
remarkable passage, ''But to you I say, to the 
rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this 
teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan, 
as they are wont to say; I cast upon you none 
other burden. Nevertheless, that which we have, 
hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh 
and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to 
him will I give authority over the nations; and he 
shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of 
the potters are broken to shivers; as I also have 
received of My Father, and I will give him the 
morning star." ''Till I come," the Lord said. 
At present Thyatira is a town of several thousand 
inhabitants and living under the name of Ak 
Hissar. She does not seem to have any special 
significance to-day; but she is certainly alive. 
Her ultimate destiny cannot yet be described 
because it cannot be accomplished till He come. 
Her position lends itself to a local fulfilment of this 
message regarding the states which lie adjacent 
and behind her. I feel assured that she shall be 
prominent in some way when He comes, and in the 
larger sense we, as a Church, must receive our 
lesson of promise. We find that it is by the killing 
of all pagan ideas and usages and empty forms 



Afterwards 245 

that we shall be made fit to live. And in thus over- 
coming all the taint of paganism that this woman 
brought in, we shall be made to rule all the nations 
with a rod of iron. This does not at first sound 
like the true teaching of Christ, but when we 
remember that iron is almost a synonym for 
strength; that those who themselves obey the law 
of Christ are the only ones fitted to enforce it on 
others; and that Christ's regime is to be an abso- 
lutely holy and just one, then does it not follow 
that all who obey do also in a sense nile? As to 
some particular nation ruling, if such becomes the 
case, it will be first by attainment to that state of 
holiness themselves. It can never consistently 
be a matter of jealousy. Christ is Ruler over all, 
and he who rules most, under Him, is he who 
serves the general human brotherhood in the most 
loving and self-sacrificing spirit. "We serve the 
race" is the motto of the Knights of the Redeemer, 
wherever you shall find them. 

Sardis is described as having only the name of 
being alive, though actually dead. She was so 
nearly dead spiiitually that none of her works were 
right or perfect before God. But there were a 
few of her people who were accounted worthy to 
walk in white with the living Christ. These few 
were not threatened with death, nor were their 
names to be blotted out of the Book of Life. These 
were to belong to that happy, because obedient, 
company to whom Christ will say, "Well done," 



246 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

instead of, "I never knew you." We know that 
these were but few; and so, though we find Sardis 
is still spared, she is but a miserable little village 
and that not quite on the same site as the old 
prosperous city. Conquered and plundered by 
Cyrus, and afterwards ruined by an earthquake, 
she only lives out a pitiful destiny, sufficiently 
alive to enable her name to be kept in evidence in 
honour of these few. There is here a companion 
lesson to that of Sodom: Sardis had a few, she 
lived; Sodom had not her ten good souls and she 
died quickly. God in His providence seems to 
place great value on each individual soul. And we 
never know in just how important a position we 
may be standing at some given moment. Compar- 
ing the experience of Sardis with that of Smyrna 
and Thyatira, we may conclude that had she more 
believingly obedient souls she would to-day be a 
city of the same ratio. God is not dead, but still 
keeps patient watch over souls and cities. 

Philadelphia (meaning. Brotherly Love) is now 
called by the name of Ala-shehr (meaning, City of 
God). She was praised highly for her goodness 
more than any of these typical cities. She still 
lives, but under her new name, the very name that 
Christ said she should have. Her first name meant 
Brotherly Love, and in this characteristic was she 
especially beloved by Him Who so loved the world 
that He gave Himself for the saving of it; and 
afterwards she found herself called, The City of 



Afterwards 247 

God. No wonder He loved these people if they 
were notable for love one towards another; and 
Christ promised them that because they had kept 
so stedfastly to the true meaning of His word, 
He would keep them from the hour of trial. Is 
this promise also for us? If we love our fellow 
human beings with the same kind of self-sacrificing 
love that He gave to us all, shall we too be exempt 
from the terrors of the Judgment to come? If 
we hold fast to lovingkindness, which is the same 
quality as believing obedience, will He shield us 
from the darkening storm which is now gathering 
over the sin-sick world? It is said, ''A man shall 
be as a hiding-place from the wind and a covert 
from the tempest, as streams of water in a dry 
place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land." 
If we want this so comforting shelter from all ills, 
we must love more and hate not at all. We must 
pity the erring, the selfish, the arrogant, for their 
afflicted spiritual state, even as we pity the hungry 
and naked. In doing this we shall doubtless pity 
our own selves. We must tolerate the failings of 
others, remembering our own. If we do so, shall we 
too come to be dwellers in the City of Brotherly 
Love ? And in our afterwards shall we too be citi- 
zens of the City of God ? Is our main lesson here 
to be learned, that these two cities are really only 
one? 

Laodicea was very religious at the beginning of 
her Christian experience. Dogmatically religious 



248 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

we find she was likely to be, as she was the mother 
of six bishoprics. She was very wealthy, and very 
fond of being entertained. She had three theatres 
and an immense circus in which could be seated 
upward of thirty thousand spectators. She had 
too easy a time, was too rich, was too fond of 
amusement, to follow the Lamb whithersoever He 
went. Her people, though believers in Christ as 
Messiah, did not want Him to refine them as gold, 
by the purifying fires of God. They did not want 
reproof or the chastenings that bring the tender 
love of God to us. They were neither wilfully 
bad, nor earnestly good. They wanted the ad- 
vantages of the World, the Flesh, and the Devil ; 
and also they wanted at the same time to be saved 
from eternal death by the sacrificial offering of the 
Christ. But He refused to accept them. He cast 
them out of His mouth. This is our last lesson 
from these seven typical cities of the Christian era, 
and few will deny that we greatly need this lesson 
to-day. Laodicea was Babylonish in her character 
and also in her destiny. She too is a name of re- 
proach. She too .is to-day a nameless ruin in 
which, as in Babylon, the wolves and jackals howl 
their derision at her suicidal foolishness. 

May God in His overruling wisdom grant that 
we take to heart, according to our light, the lessons 
conveyed to us by the characteristics and destinies 
of these cities ; and that in our afterwards we shall 
be the honour and glory of our Creator, rather 



Afterwards 249 

than a shame to the human family, through our 
lost opportunities for the renewed and continued 
life. 

There are but two paths for us to-day : the one 
leads to the Holy City of God and the other to 
Destruction. We are obliged to-day to take either 
the one path or the other. Which shall it be ? 

Then the writing shall be read, 
Which shall judge the quick and dead, 
Then the Lord of all our Race 
Shall appoint to each a place; 
Every wrong shall be set right, 
Every secret brought to light. 
O, just Judge, to whom belongs 
Vengeance for all earthly wrongs, 
Grant forgiveness. Lord, at last, 
Ere the dread account be past. 

Sir Walter Scott. 



CHAPTER VII 

A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven 
and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And 
I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven 
from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." 

Rev. XXI. i, 2. 

"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the 
former things shall not be remembered, nor come into my mind. 
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, 
behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. And 
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people; and there shall 
be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of 
crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an 
old man that hath not fiUed his days, for the child shall die a 
himdred years old and the sinner being a hundred years old shall 
be accursed. And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and 
they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall 
not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another 
eat; for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and 
my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall 
not labour in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the 
seed of the blessed of Jehovah and their offspring with them* 
And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and 
while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb 
shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and 
dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy 
in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah. " 

ISA. IXV. 17-25. 
250 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 251 

"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of 
Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their 
inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their 
God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more 
every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 
Know Jehovah ; for they shall all know me, from the least of them 
unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their 
iniquity and their sin will I remember no more. " 

Jer. xxxi. 35-37- 

"The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he 
commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inas- 
much as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world 
in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he 
hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him 
from the dead. " 

AcTSxvii. 30, 31. 

"He that is unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still [or yet 
more] ; and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still [or yet 
more] ; and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still [or 
yet more] ; and he that is holy, let him be made holy still [or yet 
more]. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to 
render to each man according as his work is. I am the Alpha 
and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end- 
Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the 
right to come to the tree of life and may enter in by the gates into 
the city." 

Rev. xxii. 11-14. 

ANEW Heaven and a new Earth, over which 
the Lord Jesus Christ shall reign supremely 
and without the tormenting opposition of Satan, 
is, or should be, the stedfast hope and highest ideal 
of all true Christian souls, if they be well read in 
the generally acknowledged Word of God. If we 
look carefully into the teaching of the prophets. 



252 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

from Enoch to John the Baptist, and also into the 
teaching of Christ and His apostles, we stand 
amazed at the view which some in the Church take 
regarding this hope of the coming of the Kingdom 
of Heaven ; the coming of the New Heaven and the 
New Earth. It has become with many who bear 
His Most Holy Name, rather more of a standing 
jest than a Divine Hope. This class of religionists 
were long ago warned by Jehovah through Isaiah 
thus : ' ' Now therefore be ye not scoffers, lest your 
bonds be made strong; for a decree of destruction 
have I heard from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, 
upon the whole land [or earth]. Give ye ear, and 
hear My voice; hearken and hear My speech. 
Doth he that plougheth to sow plough continually ? 
Doth he continually open and harrow his ground?" 
Those who scoff at the imminence of the fulfilment 
of the complete mission and office of our Redeemer, 
should remember this text; and they should also 
remember that God has long ago ploughed the soil ; 
has harrowed it into a state fit for seed; has sown 
the seed; and His Christ, the Sower, has with- 
drawn from our immediate vision for a while. 
His return is assured to be timely; specifically, the 
time of the Harvest. These modern scoffers would 
do wisely to look into this matter from the true 
Scriptural standpoint; and also look well into the 
history of events and trends of thought, and see if 
there can be found no valid signs of the fast ripen- 
ing of the Harvest. There is a common proverb 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 253 

which suits this situation well, namely, "He laughs 
best who laughs last." It is infinitely wiser to 
assist in preparing for the great Time of the 
Harvest than to laugh at the idea of its near 
approach. Solomon tells us that Wisdom asks, 
"How long will scoffers delight in scoffing and fools 
hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof. But 
ye have set at naught all my counsel and would 
have none of my reproof: I also will laugh in the 
day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear 
cometh; when your fear cometh as a storm [or 
desolation] and your calamity cometh on as a 
whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon 
you. Then will they call upon Me, hut I will not 
answer; they will seek Me diligently [or early] 
but they shall not find Me." We had better so 
read and so act, that we shall be able to laugh with 
the children of Wisdom, instead of shrinking in 
fear from approaching events. If we turn prophecy 
into a jest and evidence into a derision ; if we refuse 
to sanely consider this most vital question, how 
shall Wisdom instruct us, or how shall logical 
reasoning, deduced from established evidence, 
reach our understanding? We shall have laughed 
too soon. We know that many fantastic theories 
have been promulgated ; we may hope that much 
of the derision on the subject amongst professed 
Christians has been brought about by the earnest, 
though partly mistaken, efforts of these, some- 
times, rather fanatical preachers of the doctrme of 



254 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

Christ's imminent appearance. But even though 
some of these theories be of a rather unbalanced 
character, at least their promoters have had the 
virtue of an honest purpose. These are looking for 
Christ to reign on earth; and they desire that He 
shall do so, and are doing that which they deem to 
be their duty towards its announcement. If these 
are hoping for and working for the Kingdom in their 
own way, I would rather laugh with them when 
He comes, than laugh to-day with the scoffers. 
We rejoice to know that many earnest and well- 
balanced Christians in the Church to-day are also 
looking now for His appearance amongst us. The 
Church should be looking for Him now in its 
entire membership instead of only the few. Peter 
warns the Church of this disloyalty in many of its 
members thus: "This is now, beloved, the second 
epistle that I write unto you ; and in both of them 
I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in 
remembrance ; that ye should remember the words 
which were spoken before by the holy prophets and 
the commandments of the Lord and Saviour 
through your apostles: knowing this first, that in 
the last days mockers shall come with mockery, 
walking after their own lusts and saying, ''Where 
is the promise of His coming [or presence]? for 
from the day that the fathers fell alseep, all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the 
creation. For this they wilfully forgot., that there 
were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 255 

out of the water and amidst the water, by the 
word of God; by which means the world that then 
was, being overflowed with water, perished: but 
the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the 
same word have been stored up for fire, being 
reserved against the day of judgment and destruc- 
tion of ungodly men. ... But, according to his 
promise, we look for a new heaven and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, 
beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give 
diligence that ye may be found in peace without 
spot and blameless in His sight, and account that 
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as 
our beloved brother Paul also, according to the 
wisdom given to him, wrote unto you; as also in 
all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; 
wherein are some things hard to be understood, 
which the ignorant and unstedfast wrest, as they 
do also the other Scripture, unto their own destruc- 
tion. Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing these 
things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away 
with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your 
stedfastness. " To ignore this holy hope of the 
Christian soul is a dangerous thing for us to do. 
Peter certainly does not consider it a matter to be 
trifled with — that is, unless we be of the wicked 
sort, or of those who wrest the Scripture. If we 
be sincere seekers after the truth of this matter, 
we shall give some honest attention to the hopes 
of even the fanatical theorists. 



256 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

If we wish to criticise the many different 
theories suggested by different persons, we must 
have some infallible basis by which to judge them. 
Personal leanings, or hereditary prejudice, should 
for the time being be laid aside ; for in no other state 
of mind can we form an unbiassed or righteous 
opinion. We should be ready to recognize the 
truth though it proceed fromi a comparatively low 
estate of spirituality. I think that, in our hearts, 
we all agree that we should accept truth from all 
sources ; but it is a different and more difficult 
operation of the heart and mind to decide just 
what is truth and what is groundless error. So 
many of us, perhaps wisely, consent to the spiritual 
views held, perhaps, by our forbears and ourselves, 
for many years, rather than make a start in another 
direction, where we may be stranded on worse 
ground than we left behind, or may be tossed 
about for long years upon the troubled seas of 
doubt and restless dissatisfaction in spiritual 
matters. And if one have no sound basis from 
which to prove all things and hold fast only that 
which is good, is it not better to stay just where 
we are and do our best to serve our Maker as we 
see to be right for our day and generation? We 
should never forget in such a spiritual or mental 
conflict to pray earnestly for the Spirit of Truth. 
If the Spirit of Truth clearly calls us, we must go 
as we are led; only let us be very careful that we 
have prayed in real sincerity, that only Truth may 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 257 

appeal to our minds and souls; and that we may 
not be deceived by insidious Error, who is ever 
present with artful designs to wreck the unwary 
soul. I know of no other standard by which to 
distinguish Truth from Error than that of the 
Sacred Scriptures: and in a secondary form of 
evidence, as these teachings agree with the essen- 
tial part of human experience and inherent human 
aspiration. I think all practical Christians will 
agree that the trend of the Scriptures and the 
trend of the highest human aspirations and ideals 
have always been and are now in unity as to the 
ultimate issue. Some one may contend that it is 
only by education from these Scriptures that we 
have arrived at this trend of thought. That is 
only partly true. From whence came the spirit 
of the endeavours of many philosophers and law- 
givers to rectify the error and wrong which pre- 
vailed amongst those peoples who were ignorant 
of our Sacred Books, or who would scorn to listen 
to their instruction if they had them? And in 
what direction did the endeavours of these com- 
paratively wise men lead national thought ? Was 
it not in the direction of bringing about more 
equality between men, and more freedom for the 
many ? True, it was difficult for these to feel that 
a slave had God-given rights. And that slavery 
itself was a great sin, had not then, nor for many 
long years afterwards, entered into their ideals. 
Nor is the shadow of this world-wide iniquity yet 



258 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

quite eliminated in the very countries that owe 
their rehgious conceptions to our accepted Sacred 
Scriptures. 

We do not contend that these ancient efforts 
produced much lasting good ; we only contend that 
the trend of these noble endeavours was much in 
the same direction as those which are constantly 
advocated by our Scriptures. We must therefore 
conclude that these received from God, by some 
means, much the same trend of ideals as our 
Scriptures teach us; or that there is a latent con- 
sciousness in men's souls that feels out, perhaps 
in the dark, after the True Essential God, and His 
true law, The Royal Law. And the highest human 
souls of all ages seem to recognize the simplicity 
of the Universal Creed. One God and His Name 
One. One Family dwelling in kindly unity. One 
God-Man to bring us into this condition under His 
Super-Law, One Holy Spirit, working through 
countless agencies, to bring this holy unity about. 
This seems to be the highest ideal in the Holy 
Scriptures, and in men's souls. We know that 
Jesus is He for Whose personal leadership the 
soul "pines, waving its tentacles piteously in the 
empty air, feeling after God (or His Christ) if so be 
that it may find Him." God so loved this wanting, 
desiring human race that He sent us His Divine 
Son to satisfy our longing for Perfection in a Per- 
son, which we can realize and understand, and 
which we can look at until we become capable of 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 259 

endeavour towards conforming to this Type. We 
hunger for a human representation of all God's 
attributes. "This is what fits us for Christ. 
There is a grandeur in this cry from the depths 
which makes its very unhappiness sublime." All 
the human race have cried out in the night for 
Him, and in their infant ignorance they have 
found something else instead of Him; something 
which seemed to them in the darkness like Him. 
Thus we as a Race came to have numbers of per- 
sonal gods, clothed with the attributes of our 
highest ideals. And to-day we stand in this same 
attitude, but we have at last grasped our true 
ideal, the Christ. We, some of us, have come to 
have the same ideals as He brought us. We cannot 
as yet attain to conformity to Him as Type; but 
we have come to the place where we say. This is 
He for Whom my soul has longed and yearned. 
I can conceive of nothing higher. To this standard 
I must attain as I am able to attune my life and 
habits to it. I think it is the very ideal which is 
calculated to draw all men towards it, being the 
best conception of goodness and attainment that 
can be conceived of. So that in time all must see 
that He is indeed our Redeemer. His purity. His 
self-sacrifice, and (not the least of our desires) 
His Divine Leadership appeal to all the highest 
aspirations of the Race. This latent desire for 
peaceful unity must be general even in the beasts 
that perish, for we learn that their natures shall 



26o If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

change, as ours become holy and peaceful. They 
are naturally kinder than we, and can teach us 
many a lesson of thoughtfulness one towards 
another. We have not as yet in a general way 
yielded to the law of kindness towards one another, 
and this is the test of our ideals. The various gods 
that we in our infant days set up for ourselves, not 
knowing of any better, had some attributes, accred- 
ited to them that we do not approve of now in our 
maturity. We expect and demand holiness in our 
acknowledged Leader, and we know that He is 
holy, and we are satisfied. We, in the Christian 
world, do not seek for, or feel out after, another; 
we know that Perfection cannot be excelled. We 
know what laws He has laid down for the ruling of 
His Kingdom; and we are satisfied that these 
cannot be excelled either, because they too are per- 
fection. Granted that Christ Jesus fulfils all our 
longing hopes, and that His instructions excel all 
that we could imagine in our ideals, we stand in 
the path leading towards the highest standard of 
ethics and circumstance that the human race has 
ever aspired to. As in our early days we endowed 
with godhood all influences good or ill, thus 
acknowledging our need, not only of leadership, 
but also of assistance; in this attempt to create 
and clothe with attributes all these helpful or 
harmful influences, we find ourselves also feeling 
out in the darkness after the helpful brooding Holy 
Spirit, or recognizing the injurious influence of 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 261 

the evil demons, who are the unholy Executive of 
Satan. And so at this late hour of our career, this 
almost closing of the sixth day of failure to really 
find Him, as a whole Race, we have a great hope 
that the light is now breaking, which shall enable 
us to see the true Leader of our souls, and see Him 
as He really is ; and then we shall begin very 
rapidly to become more like Him. He must be 
lifted up so that all men may see His Light; and 
when we once see the true Light that came in the 
Person of the Messiah, we are in process of being 
judged. Many of us do not want to present our- 
selves before this Light. It is said by Him, **For 
every one that doeth [or practiseth] evil, hateth 
the light and cometh not to the light lest his works 
should be reproved [or convicted]. But he that 
doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works 
be made manifest, that they have been wrought 
in God." And so in this simple but very trying 
test, we are passing ourselves under Judgment. 
We judge ourselves by the Word. If we belong to 
the Satanic Kingdom we obey its dicta ; if we belong 
to Christ's Kingdom we come to Him in constant 
inquiry after instructions for our daily walking. 
Thus do we convict or approve ourselves before 
the Light of the World. He came to save us from 
sinning and dying; if we want to continue to sin 
and die, we must stay with the Destroyer, not 
with the Saviour. And this is precisely what we 
do, if we decide to continue doing the deeds which 



262 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

are evil. Evil is simply the sin of trying to injure 
one another, or being unkind or unjust to one 
another, or missing opportunities of furthering 
each other's — not our own — interest. How many 
of us can stand before this simple test of works and 
thoughts? And yet this is the Scriptural test of 
citizenship of Christ's Kingdom. 

And so the fulfilment of Scripture, as to time and 
circumstance, being almost completed, we are 
able to perceive that an experience is coming to us 
wherein we shall each of us be presented before this 
Light, for judgment of our hearts and works. We 
already see men's ideals being presented before this 
Light. We see public movements judged from this 
divine standpoint of thoughtfulness towards one 
another. Is this an indication that we are setting 
up the King within our own hearts, and demanding 
that He shall be set up in all public movements? 
Man lives in so complex a condition that tempta- 
tion follows him everywhere, or lurks in waiting 
for him at all points. And as our experience 
multiplies, and becomes more complex, so do our 
temptations. Such commonplace and necessary 
things as clothing, food, and home-life, while part 
of our very existence, are they which, more than 
any other, lead us into temptation. And if we 
ever expect to escape from this hotbed of evil 
desires which tempt us so cruelly, we shall have to 
reconstruct our system of social, commercial, and 
even religious life, which go to make up the 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 263 

tyranny of our ever>^day experience. We must 
pass all our ideals which pertain to these three 
classes of human affairs before the Word of the 
Light of the World. If we do this, we shall find 
that we must simplify our desires along these lines ; 
and by simplifying them, we shall no doubt find 
to our surprise that we have enriched and beauti- 
fied all the circumstances of our heart's desires, 
and that the ideal of temperate simplicity is really 
the greatest good and gives the most abiding pleasure. 
It seems to have almost escaped our calculation 
that the Holy City is the City of Greatest Happi- 
ness. Our present-day philosophy is too swinish 
to be truly scientific. There is plenty on earth to 
produce that for all which is now considered luxury, 
to be obtained only by the few. Really, the idea 
that a state of plenty, unless it be a rarity, cannot 
be enjoyed, is one of the most unscientific of all the 
Satanic inspirations. Christ says: one another, 
prefer one another, care for one another; Satan 
breathes out over this: self, self -preferment, care 
for oneself. Satan says, If a thing is costly from 
the circumstance of much labour, or risk of life, 
or from rarity, it is therefore desirable. This is a 
most false and hurtful and essentially swinish 
doctrine to teach, and is clearly a child of the Pit. 
I think a true artist or philosopher would be 
happier, more profoundly satisfied in the Holy 
City than in the present condition of the world, 
under Satan's idea of Greatest Happiness. 



264 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

If we could only have an outpouring of the Spirit 
of Truth upon us, so that we could see things as 
they really are! True, some do see visions of a 
redeemed earthly condition, and dream dreams of 
the holy state to be ; but what we need is a general 
outpouring of this state of mind and heart, so that 
we shall arise as one and work in a self-sacrificing 
way as one, in order to cast up a holy highway for 
the Redeemer. 

To many of us, the story of the wonderful day 
of Pentecost, which followed the ascension of our 
Saviour, comes like the recital of some mystic 
religious dream. That it actually occurred is 
believed by us; but which of us realizes its signifi- 
cance in connexion with our present experience, as 
compared with our possible future experience? 
Joel had written for our hope and encouragement, 
''And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith 
God, I will pour forth My Spirit upon all flesh; 
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
and your young men shall see visions, and your old 
men shall dream dreams." And Peter testifies 
to the people that the wonders of Pentecost was the 
fulfilment of that word. It was the last days of 
that old dispensation, and is, in the racial process, 
concurrent with the present last days of our dis- 
pensation. Therefore Peter's address should be 
re-read to-day with vital interest, by all who long 
for Christ's appearance. We quote at some length 
the report of his words and the result that followed 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 265 

his address to those early seekers, thus: "And 
Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized 
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto 
the remission of your sins ; and ye shall receive the 
gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise 
and to your children, and to all that are afar off; 
even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto 
Him. And with many other words he testified and 
exhorted them saying. Save yourselves from this 
crooked generation. They that received his word 
were baptized and there were added unto them in 
that day about three thousand souls. And they 
continued stedfastly in the apostle's teaching and 
fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the 
prayers. 

"And fear came upon every soul; and many 
wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 
And all that believed were together and had all 
things common; and they sold their possessions 
and goods and parted them to all, according as any 
man had need. And day by day, continuing sted- 
fastly with one accord in the temple and breaking 
bread at home, they took their food with gladness 
and singleness of heart, praising God, and having 
favour with all the people. And the Lord added 
to them day by day those that were being saved." 

Peter says that the promise was for those whom 
he addressed, and for their children, and for those 
afar off. We may take this last as meaning far off 
in generation; not as near as the children. So we 



266 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

may claim its general application. Peter said, 
if we may apply it to ourselves, that if we repented 
we should have the gift of the Holy Spirit. As he 
spoke under inspiration of this Holy Spirit, it must 
be a true promise. So if we have not this gift, 
it is because we have not repented. He says also, 
that this promised for all whom God calls to Him; 
but in order to avoid misunderstanding as to being 
called of God, he exhorts them thus, ''Save your- 
selves from this crooked generation. " We see this 
to mean. Listen to God's call by and through His 
Son, and use your God-given will in repentance and 
effort to attain to that spiritual condition in which 
a soul is fitted for the gift of the Holy Spirit. The 
immediate consequence of this gift was recognition 
of the fact that the earth is the Lord's and the ful- 
ness thereof, and that all His children have an 
equal right to plenty and comfortable sustenance. 
When the Christian world has repented, so that it is 
fit to receive the directing influence of the Holy 
Spirit, we shall soon be in a position to solve all 
economic problems; and not till then. These 
people, though co-operative in their new plan of 
economics, do not seem to have acted in any 
fanatical manner; for we find that they had favour 
with all the people. 

Again, we have a strong proof of the felicity of 
the economic arrangements of this new Church, 
which was just fresh from the powerful influence 
of the Holy Spirit whom Christ Jesus had sent 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 267 

to them, as He had promised to do. Peter and 
John had been testifying of Jesus with great power, 
and it is said that, "When they had prayed, the 
place was shaken wherein they were gathered 
together; and they were all filled with the Holy 
Spirit, and they spake the word of God with bold- 
ness. And the multitude of them that believed 
were of one heart and soul, and not one of them 
said that aught of the things which he possessed 
was his own; but they had all things common. 
And with great power gave the apostles their wit- 
ness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and 
great grace was upon them all. For neither was 
there among them any that lacked, for as many as 
were possessors of lands or houses sold them and 
brought the price of the things that were sold and 
laid them at the apostles' feet: and distribution 
was made unto each, according as any had need. " 
Did temptation creep into this new and holy 
economic condition? We find that it did. We 
have the story of Ananias and Sapphira his wife 
to testify that some fell into sin even in the early 
days of the new Church. These two souls wanted 
the name and benefit of the holy method of living ; 
but they thought to retain a little out of the sale of 
their property, we may presume, fearing that the 
new plan might not continue, or that they them- 
selves might change their minds regarding it; or 
they may have kept back part of it in order to have 
a little more luxurious living in secret than that 



268 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

which the commune enjoyed. We believe that 
their severe penalty was due to their secret dis- 
loyalty to their Leader. It was a case of high 
treason. That this kind of high treason is in our 
midst to-day, is, I imagine, undisputed. That it 
was considered to be a typical instance of a grave 
sin of the nominal Church is evident. We are 
never guilty of high treason, until we take upon 
ourselves allegiance either to an earthly ruler or 
to Christ. There is plenty of food for serious 
thought in this lesson of the death of these two 
traitors. Our reluctance to put our best and our 
all into the true service of the Lord has brought 
about spiritual death to the Church, in her mem- 
bers, all down the passing years; still we withhold 
and still we die; the most obedient of us are in a 
measure guilty of this sin, and are in a state of 
correspondingly deathlike coma. We like a showy 
religion which requires great churches and cathe- 
drals and all the worldly honour which is attached 
to the formal observance thereof ; but as yet we 
keep back part of the price of our pretended offer- 
ing. We do that which was never in our dispen- 
sation enjoined upon us in the way of formality; 
and that which was constantly and continually 
enjoined upon us, we almost entirely ignore. Our 
inner hearts are full of petty or more serious faults 
of character, which are quite unlawful in a Christ- 
ian. We ought either to acknowledge Satan as 
our Lord, or cleanse our hearts from these hidden 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 269 

death-producing sins. But we may be sure that 
while these sins exist in secret, our souls are just 
as quietly dying. While we are in this state we 
must be conscious of it ourselves; the world 
usually sees signs of our inner weakness, and the 
Holy Spirit has full record of all the secret work- 
ings of our hearts. We might well ask ourselves 
the question, Is there any actual and abiding 
profit in this traitorous behaviour? 

We not only deceive ourselves to our undoing 
by keeping back part of the price, by withholding 
from our Lord our full surrender to Him, by hold- 
ing back some of that which belongs to the little 
unfortunate children, by giving part of our time 
and talents and influence to Satan's interests; 
but we also become lazy from a feeling of security, 
which arises from a regular system of co-operation. 
We find that Paul had to reprove some of these 
co-operative citizens for idleness. He commands 
the Thessalonians thus: **If any will not work, 
neither let him eat. For we hear of some that walk 
among you disorderly, that work not at all, but 
are busybodies. Now them that are such we 
command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
that with quietness they work and eat their own 
bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well- 
doing. And if any man obeyeth not our word by 
this epistle, note that man, that ye have no com- 
pany with him, to the end that he may be ashamed 
and yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish 



2^o If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

him as a brother. ' ' We learn here that in a Christ- 
ian community all are expected to work in an 
orderly way and eat their own bread. W^e also learn 
that some hoped by joining this community to 
escape work. And in a strictly religious sense 
do we not also find this trouble to-day ? If we are 
truly Christians we shall be working in co-oper- 
ation with Christ in His Church, in some form of 
labour that we are best suited for. Our work 
will be as different as our ordinary pursuits. But 
we must work or not eat. I doubt whether we 
are given much spiritual food if we are not doing 
our best to serve the brotherhood of the human 
family. And we are warned to work for our own 
ultimate salvation : we are not to rest so idly in the 
security that we feel in Christ's offering for us, that 
we lose the use of our active spiritual energies. 
Paul warns the Philippians thus: ''So then, my 
beloved, even as ye have obeyed, not as in my 
presence only, but now much more in my absence, 
work out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
bling ; for it is God who worketh in you both to will 
and to work of His good pleasure." To work 
in all ways which are commanded of God, and in 
which we find ourselves capable of real service, 
with the assurance of the indwelling guidance of 
the Holy Spirit, and in Christian unity, is Heaven. 
This is the Kingdom within, or, in our midst, that 
our Saviour speaks of. And Christ Jesus promises 
the good-for-nothing Laodiceans that if they will 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 271 

but become zealous and brave and earnest in their 
effort to overcome, they shall share His throne with 
Him. We are taught through these indifferent 
people that we must either rouse ourselves up to 
action and earnest purpose, or die an ignominious 
death from inertia. If we awaken and repent and 
get to work at the service that we each are best 
suited to render towards the new State to be, we 
shall have the peerless blessing of the Triune God- 
head dwelling in us and with us, to will and to work 
for His good pleasure. Have we tested this pro- 
mise yet ? We have many instances of this indwell- 
ing with its accompanying power in the Old and 
New Testaments ; also we have it in many estab- 
lished instances of more modern date. But we 
cannot hope for this holy occupation of the Church 
until she becomes cleansed in the individual. This 
calls for effort, and not idleness. We must work 
for this great event. We must first decide that we 
want it. Do we really desire this holy indwelling 
that shall displace so much of our accustomed 
thought and aim, which is so unclean and injurious ? 
When the Judge meets us in the Valley of De- 
cision or Judgment, we shall find that many of our 
unprofitable aims and usages must be consigned 
to the adjoining Valley of Destruction. This is, 
in figure, the method that Christ Jesus will use to 
cleanse the Church, until it becomes fitted for the 
City of God on earth and in heaven. Have we 
authority for this assertion? Only His own word 



272 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

supplementing and fulfilling that of the prophets of 
Jehovah; this should be sufficient authority. 
After giving to the people that memorable thesis 
known to us as the Sermon on the Mount, and 
after more of this kind of discourse, Jesus said 
definitely that, "The Son of Man shall send forth 
His angels, and they shall gather out of His king- 
dom all things that cause stumbling and shall cast 
them into the furnace of fire : there shall be weep- 
ing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the right- 
eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their 
Father. " All things that cause stumbling shall be 
cast into the Valley of Destruction. The persons 
to whom this means financial loss or loss of political 
influence or great social prominence, or loss of 
religious high standing or of opportunity to indulge 
in idle pleasure, while others support them by their 
hard labour — these will, no doubt, stand at the edge 
of this consuming fire weeping over their losses, 
and gnashing their teeth in rage, as they see their 
iniquitous systems and usages pass away from 
them for ever in the flames of Gehenna. And the 
righteous shall shine forth as the sun. The differ- 
ence between the two classes will be so great that a 
radiance of holiness shall emanate from one, and 
weeping and gnashing of teeth from the other. We 
do not read of a medium class, but of a righteous 
and wicked only. We have already seen some 
of these signs in connexion with the equalizing 
measures which have with great effort and forbear- 



A New Heaven and a New Eiarth 273 

ance been enacted. Jesus Christ also said to us, 
this time from out His hidden Throne, ' * Behold ! the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell 
with them, and they shall be His people, and God 
Himself shall be with them and be their God; 
and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes ; 
and death shall be no more ; neither shall there be 
mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more; the 
first things are passed away .... But for the 
fearful and unbelieving and abominable and mur- 
derers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters 
and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that 
burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the 
second death. " As the City is to come down out 
of heaven, and God is to tabernacle with men, it 
must be in a state of earthly being ; and as it is to 
be made free from pain or distress or crying, it can- 
not mean a spiritual state of being, as we are not 
taught that these conditions belong to the spiritual 
body. And as Jesus said, * ' None is good save one, 
even God," we should think it to be likely that 
all the people of the earth will at this time be 
actually consumed by fire. But God has, we re- 
joice to know, also said that every knee shall yet 
bow to Him, and every one shall confess His name. 
As iniquity is frequently personified and Jesus had 
before His death spoken (as above quoted) of the 
consimiing of all things which cause stumbling, we 
may believe with reason that the latter passage 
means precisely the same as His saying quoted a 

Z8 



274 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

little above it. Everywhere in Scripture do we 
find corroboration of this view. And everyivhere 
do we find reference to a time when these wicked 
things which cause stumbling to the human race 
shall be separated out of our experience and for 
ever destroyed. All our stumbling comes from 
our breaking of the law of God. We cannot 
stumble in any other way; only by disobedience 
do we fall away from the path of rectitude, which 
leads to His Kingdom. It is our readiness to be 
fearful, unbelieving, idolatrous, and, most general 
of all, untruthful, that keeps back Christ's reign. 
We are selfish and wicked, so we cause in each 
other that trouble which brings crying and mourn- 
ing and pain. This lawlessness of ours prevents 
His complete reign over us; a reign which shall 
bring nothing but blessing and benefit to us. 
Paul, fearing that the new converts might be 
led into some fanatical error regarding the coming 
again of Christ, warns the Thessalonians thus: 
* ' Let no man beguile you in any wise ; for it will 
not be, except the falling away come first and 
the man of sin [or lawlessness] be revealed. . . . 
And now ye know that which restraineth, to the 
end that he may be revealed in his own season. 
For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work ; 
only there is one that restraineth now until he be 
taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed 
the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall con- 
sume [or slay] with the breath of His mouth and 



A New Heaven and New a Earth 275 

bring to naught by the manifestation of His com- 
ing [or presence]." This is a clear and most 
distinct statement of the fact that the Lord Jesus 
is restrained from His Kingdom by lawlessness in 
us ; but at the accomplished time He will bring to an 
end our breaking of the law. 

We are led by Scripture to look for this time to 
come at a given date in any case; but sooner, if 
we choose to invite it by becoming obedient before 
we are really forced to obey or be destroyed in 
some way. Connected with this theoiy is another, 
which we had better heed when we are called 
upon to make a decision between right and wrong 
conduct. We quote the following passage to 
explain this dangerous situation, "And he saith 
unto me, Seal not up the words of the prophecy of 
this book ; for the time is at hand. He that is 
unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still [or 
yet more] : and he that is filthy, let him be made 
filthy still [or yet more] : and he that is righteous , 
let him do righteousness still [or yet more]: and 
he that is holy, let him be made holy still [or yet 
more]. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward 
is with Me, to render to each man according as his 
work is . . . Blessed are they that wash their 
robes, that they may have the right to come to the 
tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the 
city. " It seems probable from this that there will 
come to each of us a time when from our own de- 
cision we arrive at the parting of the ways; after 



276 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

which, according as we decide, we become continu- 
ally more righteous and holy from our own personal 
effort to become so ; or, if we decide to be lawless, 
unrighteous, and filthy, we do from that fatal 
decision continue to walk in the downward path 
which leads to destruction. I think that this ir- 
revocable moment only com.es with our deliberate 
decision either for or against lawlessness. Long 
centuries ago, when our race was young, Jehovah 
said, ' ' My Spirit shall not strive [or rule in, or abide 
in] with man for ever. " And we know that there 
came a time when the Spirit left off reasoning 
with these ancient people; and those who obeyed 
went into the Ark, and those who did not were soon 
covered by the destructive flood. In all the ex- 
periences of the many cities, which we have noted 
in the previous chapter, only Nineveh lived after 
her doom was pronounced ; and that was because 
she repented so earnestly : but the mercy was not 
extended to her a second time. These cities 
were all warned; and all those who refused to 
decide to be righteous died, either suddenly, or 
else corruption set in until it destroyed the city 
which had deliberately chosen to die. It may be 
learned from these typical cities that wickedness is 
forgiven, if the sinner repents and leaves off sinning. 
But we never find that a soul is forced to repent, A 
decision deliberately made, seems to be a final one; 
and from that moment we grow^ better or worse, 
according as we decide. Our text given above was 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 277 

intended for the very last days of the last epoch 
of this dispensation : so it is especially ours. Have 
we not each of us known persons who were brought 
face to face with a decision by which they were 
compelled to wrong some one, or do that which 
was noble and right ? Have we not seen some turn 
into the wrong path deliberately, after which no 
moral crime seemed beyond them, only stopping 
at the cold common law? Do we not observe 
that in such, the conscience soon ceases to warn and 
the moral nature becomes lifeless? On the other 
hand, have we not seen those who have been 
awakened to higher ideals and aims, become 
better day by day, ripening in righteous qualities ? 
It is the Valley of Decision that is of gravest import- 
ance to us to-day. We shall at some time be 
obliged to walk through it in our way, either to the 
New Jerusalem, or to the Gehenna of destruction, 
that awaits those who listen to the wrong call. 

There is so much evidence that the New Heavens 
and New Earth refer entirely to an acquired con- 
dition of righteousness on the earth, and that we 
are everywhere urged to repent and work for its 
early coming, that I cannot comprehend how Scrip- 
ture students can, without wresting the Word of 
God to their hurt, think of the new Holy City as 
being only in the heavens; nor do I comprehend 
how the doctrine has arisen which says that the 
Lord shall come to a wicked, indifferent, and unre- 
pentant race, and by an instantaneous miracle 



278 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

make a perfect and holy people of us, whether we 
wish it or not. True, we know that His King- 
dom must come duly. God still rules the destinies 
of the Race. But where does He promise us that 
any but the repentant and obedient shall enter 
therein, or even form a part of it ? Then shall there 
be few therein ? That hardly seems to be Scriptu- 
ral, as we are informed that ''every knee shall bow, 
and that every tongue shall confess His name." 
Then where does the truth lie ? At least one promi- 
nent and vital truth stands out distinctly in the 
Christian religion as it was taught by the Founder 
of it and His apostles and His herald John the Bap- 
tist. This vital truth is, that repentance over past 
sinning, and the keeping of the Royal Law, are 
alike essential to life eternal and to entrance into 
the Holy City on earth. This cannot be disputed 
by any Scripture student. There are not two 
conditions of soul for these two states, but only 
one, viz., the condition of having the Kingdom 
within. Then to live is Christ and to die is 
gain. To live to partake of the cups of service and 
self-offering of the Redeemer, and to leave our 
physical body of infirmities and temptations, is 
great gain. But the status of unity with the 
Redeemer is the same in each. So, we cannot but 
see that our indifference, or more open rebellion, 
to this Law, is that which hinders His reign on 
earth. It is Lawlessness which restrains, or we 
might have the time shortened. We should take 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 279 

warning from the doom of those typical cities to 
which we have been drawing attention : that if we 
ignore all warning, and deliberately decide to keep 
Christ out of His own as long as we can, preferring 
the present rule of Satan, by the time He shall 
come, from the date having been reached in which 
He must reign, we and our children will have ceased 
to be running in the race for either the Holy City 
or Eternal Life. This thought is expressed in our 
Lord's utterance when He is speaking of the near 
approaching climax. He says: ''But when the 
Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the 
angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of 
His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all 
the nations, and He shall separate them one from 
another, as the shepherd separate th the sheep from 
the goats. " Then he gives us the test whereby we 
shall all be judged and separated. We are all too 
familiar with these words to be in any appreciable 
dread of their awful meaning. After fully stating 
what the test shall be which shall separate us into 
two classes. He tells us, "And these [the wicked, 
or those who are merely unkind] shall go away into 
eternal punishment : but the righteous into eternal 
life." We learn from scholars that the original 
term used here is the same as was used if an unruly 
horse or man were withdrawn from a race in which 
he was running, but not running according to rules. 
There is so much figure used in Scripture that we 
should be careful how we read these passages. 



280 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

For instance, The end of the world is given a mar- 
ginal rendering in the R.V. as The Consummation of 
the Age. This one instance will serve to clear up 
much seeming inconsistency in prophecy. But if 
we take the prophecies together with Jesus Christ's 
own words, and those of the apostles, we can have 
no doubt but that at the close of this age the wicked 
and unrepentant shall be by some means put out 
of the race for Eternal Life and the Holy City. 
At this late date, this idea is food for thought for 
a man who is contemplating the future of his own 
children, or those of other citizens of Christendom. 

There is no space in this merely suggestive work 
to search into intricate prophecies and their dates 
of fulfilment. There are many books to be had on 
this subject which pay well for most careful reading. 
These are a class of themselves. But for our pur- 
pose we are led to use a different method of arriv- 
ing at the same approximate conclusion regarding 
Christ's imminent recognized Presence, and the 
establishing of His Kingdom. 

We have found our racial career from Adam's 
day, as we have the history of it, to be divided 
into three periods ; the two latter of which we have 
already been drawing attention to. The first of 
these three, however, lies in that period between 
Adam and Abraham. We shall find that our 
career from Adam's da}^ until the end of the present 
century, taken as a whole, is again divided into 
periods, which are each important enough to be 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 281 

considered a time-marking point ; each has a length 
of about one thousand years, and in each case the 
new day is pointed off by important era-marking 
circumstances. Where lack of exactness is noted, 
we should remember that history does not always 
mark the initial date when great changes begin. 
No doubt with this consideration we shall find that 
these periods coincide fairly accurately with the 
turn of each one thousand years. (In noting these 
dates, we accept the chronology of our history, 
which is accepted by our Church and Nation. 
That there are many other chronologies given, we 
are aware; but as this is the generally accepted one, 
and seems to agree with the general scheme of our 
career, we do not hesitate to adopt it for this 
purpose.) We find the period from Adam to 
Enoch to be about one thousand years (first day). 
Enoch is spoken of as having walked with God ; and 
we are obliged to consider him a very religious 
personage of his day and no doubt an era-marking 
prophet of God. Some three thousand years 
after he wrote and taught his message to humanity, 
he is spoken of as being a most distinguished pro- 
phet. And also his translation without death is 
alluded to. As this period rests on the translation 
and not the birth of Enoch, we may suppose that 
his teaching had its greatest effect after the 
people had witnessed this almost unique event, 
i. e., the translation of a body into another state 
of being without the usual course of death. 



282 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

The next period (second day) of one thousand 
years lies between the translation of Enoch and 
Abraham's birth and call. To his call and appoint- 
ment to the office of leader we need not refer. That 
it marked off a new spiritual day, no one who reads 
Scripture can doubt. The next period (third day) 
brings us into the period of the building of the 
Temple by David and Solomon. With the com- 
ing of David to the throne of Israel and the carry- 
ing out of his design for the building of the Temple 
by Solomon, came a new spiritual, as well as 
temporal, day to Israel. From the building 
of the Temple until the birth of Christ gives us 
the fourth day (4th). No Christian will doubt 
that this event ushered in a new day or peri- 
od; and a period which is clearly defined. If 
we follow the fifth day down through its one 
thousand years, we find that it rests on the begin- 
ning of a new religious and political condition in 
Christendom, and a new occupation of Jerusalem. 
The Turkish Mohammedan had established him- 
self in the holy place, and with but short-lived 
interruption continues there until this day. Eng- 
land, at this date, was in process of occupation by 
the Normans; for though it was not until 1066 A.D. 
that William of Normandy really came to the 
throne of England, and established Norman usages 
and supremacy over the nation, these had been 
creeping into England even before Edward the 
Confessor came to the throne. He was educated 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 283 

fully in Norman ways during his exile of twenty- 
five years in Normandy — while the Danes ruled 
England. But one can see from accounts of the 
times by historians, that the actual occupation of 
England by the Normans began, in spirit, as did 
also the Turkish occupation of Jerusalem, in effort 
and spirit, pretty nearly on the one-thousand- 
year date. And if these Normans, as well as the 
Saxons, are descendants of the Dispersion and are 
part of Israel, it adds to the importance of the 
event and date. Perhaps the most important of 
all the momentous movements peculiar to this 
period, is the struggle for supremacy in Europe 
between the two great forces of Church and civil 
government. Very bitter was the struggle through- 
out Europe in the early part of the eleventh cen- 
tury, and so it continued for some time, until, 
before the century closed. Church supremacy bore 
heavily and completely on all the States of Europe. 
But the real seed-bed in this movement of era- 
marking struggle lay close to the one-thousand- 
year date, and in the Holy Roman Empire, until 
the Western Reformation, few dared for long to 
defy the Pope of Rome. The sixth day clearly 
lies between this induction of Roman arbitrary 
Supremacy and the beginning of the next century, 
or 2000 A.D. The seventh lies still farther on, one 
thousand years after the close of the sixth day. I 
think we shall find this to be the true situation in 
this Adamic Race: and truth has a peculiar and 



284 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

unique quality in that she unifies the true ideas 
which lie scattered here and there amidst much 
error and falsehood. 

Much error and misunderstanding have arisen 
from a misunderstanding of prophecy concerning 
this seventh day, the day of Christ's Kingdom 
on earth. Many minor sects have, as we have 
noted, confused the prophecies concerning the pre- 
liminary Presence of Christ, with that of His 
complete reign over an obedient and holy people. 
There are two trends of prophecy which must be 
kept distinct to avoid this confusion. The one 
assures us that Christ will ultimately subject every- 
thing to His rule. The other is that we must 
repent and become obedient and holy in order 
that this holy ruling shall be possible. That the 
time of this second preparatory period is one of 
terrible struggle between right and wrong is as sure 
as His Word. That Christ Jesus and His Execu- 
tive is due to come before the new day arrives is a 
matter of Scripture. That He comes to separate 
the things which cause stumbling from the helpful 
things, is but reasonable. But we are too apt to 
confuse His position amongst us as Judge, or 
Separator, with that of His absolute reign during 
the seventh day. Now is the time that we our- 
selves must decide each his own destiny; we are 
wholly responsible for the future of our souls. 
After He has subjected everything to Himself or to 
the Royal Law, it is too late. Something will have 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 285 

happened to us before that, if we choose to rebel against 
Him. As it is so generally conceded that the 
seventh day is to be a perfect condition, and as it 
is so clearly set forth to be an earthly state of being, 
we shall merely call attention to some prophecies 
which describe this condition as it works itself out 
in human experience so that we may have a sub- 
stantial ground for all our efforts towards that end. 
In so doing we hope to be enabled to perceive to 
what an extent we have fallen into sinful habits 
and systems, and what deeply rooted cause we 
have for the repentance which is besought of us and 
demanded of us, if we wish to enter this near 
approaching last and only Holy City, the New 
Jerusalem. Jehovah commands us to seek after 
this special knowledge. What can be more 
immediately important to us at this testing epoch ? 
He says, ''Seek 3^e out of the book of Jehovah, and 
read; no one of these shall be missing, none shall 
want her mate ; for my mouth it hath commanded 
and His Spirit it hath gathered them. And He 
hath cast the lot for them and His hand hath 
divided it into them by line." Prophecy has 
always been filled duly, and God's arm is not 
shortened that He cannot save, or that He cannot 
destroy. So, if we seek in His Word we shall 
find many descriptions of this coming con- 
dition which should interest and instruct us, 
if we are earnestly purposing to assist the Lord 
Christ with our best talents and opportunity, 



286 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

as the Holy Spirit shall direct and uphold us. 
If we think that Christ does not want or need 
our service we had better read in Isaiah where 
Jehovah says, "I have set watchmen upon thy 
walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their 
peace day nor night. Ye that are Jehovah's re- 
membrancers take ye no rest, and give Him no 
rest till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a 
praise in the earth. ... Go through, go through 
the gates ; prepare ye the way of the people ; cast 
up, cast up the highway ; gather out the stones ; lift 
up an ensign for the peoples. Behold, Jehovah 
hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say ye 
to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation 
cometh; behold, His reward is with Him and His 
recompense before Him. And they shall call them 
The holy people. The redeemed of Jehovah. " This 
certainly looks as if we should watch and work 
towards this great purpose, and our reward will be 
sure; and agrees with the Lord's word through 
John, "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is 
with Me, to render to each man according as his 
work is." We must not only watch and work, 
but we must refine and purify ourselves. Daniel 
tells us regarding this day the time of the end thus : 
"Many shall purify themselves and make them- 
selves white and be refined; but the wicked shall 
do wickedly and none shall understand; but they 
that are wise shall understand." This teaches 
us that we shall not be compelled to become pure 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 287 

and refined from the filth of sin ; but that we must 
strive after it ourselves. The warnings to the 
seven churches in Asia, to which we have drawn 
attention, teach this same doctrine. We are 
constantly urged to repent ourselves of sinning, 
to be zealous to repent. Hosea warns the Church 
or spiritual Israel, ' * To sow to yourselves in right- 
eousness, reap according to kindness; break up 
your fallow ground ; for it is time to seek Jehovah, 
till He come and rain righteousness upon you. 
Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped 
iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; for thou 
didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy 
mighty men. " This leaves a grave responsibility 
on the Church to amend her own wa^^s and learn 
to trust in God rather than in human might. Per- 
haps nothing which we can quote so well describes 
our present condition, and what God thinks of our 
ways, and what He asks that we should do instead 
thereof, as the following from the prophet Amos, 
"They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and 
they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. . . . For 
I know how manifold are your transgressions and 
how mighty are your sins, ye that afflict the just, 
that take a bribe, that turn aside the needy in the 
gates from their rights. . . . Therefore he that is 
prudent shall keep silence in such a time, for it 
is an evil time. . . . Woe unto you that desire the 
day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the 
day of Jehovah? It is darkness and not light. . . . 



288 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not 
Hght, even very dark and no lightness in it? I 
hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no dehght 
in your solemn assembHes. Yea though ye offer 
Me your burnt offerings and meat offerings, I will 
not accept them; neither will I regard the peace 
offering of your fat beasts. Take thou away 
from Me the noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear 
the melody of thy viols. But let justice roll down 
as waters and righteousness as a mighty [or ever] 
flowing stream. " We seem to have here a word of 
warning that is very poignant as it bears on our 
doctrinal religion and formal worship of God. 
This passage, taken with that found in Isaiah i. 
10-20, shows plainly how God hates so much 
hoUow pretence; so much cry of Lord, Lord, and. 
The day of Jehovah, The day of Jehovah. If we 
do not decide to obey the Royal Law of God, we 
had better not be calling loudly for the Lord, or for 
the day of Jehovah, for it is a dark day for those 
who deliberately choose Satan's rule. This day 
is ours when each of us decides, either for or against 
submission to the absolute rule of Christ Jesus on 
earth. We should remember that God said 
through Zephaniah: ''And it shall come to pass at 
that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, 
and I will punish the men that are settled on their 
lees, that say in their hearts, Jehovah will not do 
good, neither will He do evil. " And the prophet 
urges the more obedient to ''Seek ye Jehovah, all 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 289 

ye meek of the earth, that have kept His ordi- 
nances. Seek righteousness, seek meekness; it 
may be ye will be hid in the day of Jehovah's 
anger. ' ' Speaking of this testing time Malachi 
tells us that, when the Lord comes to His Temple, 
it will first be in Judgment. He says, ''But 
who can abide the day of His coming? And who 
shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a 
refiner's fire and like fuller's soap, and He will 
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will 
purify the sons of Levi and refine them as gold 
and silver, and they shall offer unto Jehovah 
offerings in righteousness." This is much the 
same idea as that contained in our Lord's parable 
of the wheat and the tares. In these passages 
much good is granted to be found in the sons of 
Levi. There is much gold and silver; but the 
foreign matter must be separated from the pure 
metal by the fires of God's crucible. There is much 
good wheat too, we rejoice to know that, but the 
tares are as yet too much mixed up with the 
wheat for seed for His new Kingdom. It is not 
unreasonable that the Sons of Levi should be 
asked to refine themselves and become so holy 
that "the bells of the horses therein shall have 
written upon them, 'Holy unto Jehovah,' and 
every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy 
unto Jehovah. " It is only reasonable that holi- 
ness be required from those who teach the neces- 
sity of holiness. True, no one can be wholly good, 

Z9 



290 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

but each can confess his weakness and refine him- 
self from the dross which has become a part of his 
measure of gold and silver, and a part of the living 
seed of good wheat which is his. And in our 
Christendom, which is made up of those souls to 
whom we are prayerfully appealing, do we not 
find the duty evident, and the opportunity ready, 
for this general movement of refinement, in all the 
various systems of commercial, social, intellectual, 
and religious life which go to make up our daily 
experience ? Our Race may be said to exist in 
these four phases of being. Each must pass 
through the fires of God and of His Christ, and are 
now doing so ; who could doubt it ? There is a great 
call for brave soldiers of the Cross to-day. And all 
those who determine to fight the good fight should 
remember Elisha's comforting words to the timid 
young man who said, ''Alas, my Master, how shall 
we do?" "Fear not," Elisha answered, ''for 
they that are with us are more than they that 
are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, 
Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may 
see. And Jehovah opened the eyes of the young 
man; and he saw, and behold the mountain was 
full of horses and chariots of fire round about 
Elisha." The theme of special service in its. 
many avenues is too long and intricate to more 
than note in its important place here. But 
we should think of this as a lesson regarding our 
security in these services; and we conclude from 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 291 

the above passage that we may hope for a like 
protection if we are working for the right object. 
And if we are thus working earnestly towards His 
Kingdom we must feel that nothing in heaven or 
earth or hell can stop our efforts if they are ap- 
pointed to us of God. But we may, like His 
Only begotten Son, have some of the experience of 
Gethsemane, the Cup, and the Cross: we shall 
share His temptation of the wilderness, and His 
weariness, and also, we rejoice to know, we too shall 
have the ministry of the Holy Spirit to protect and 
assist us in all endeavours which are truly un- 
selfish and holy. On this holy assistance and de- 
moniac tempting by spiritual beings, hangs the 
explanation of the term, A New Heaven and a 
New Earth. We look for a Sabbath of rest from all 
that tempts and destroys. This would necessitate 
a new state of affairs in the heavenly or spiritual 
condition that lies immediately around us. Paul 
speaks of the third heaven; so there must be at 
least three. This is a very interesting theme, but 
we may only draw attention to it here, as it shows 
us how we stand to-day in the design of our 
Creator for our Race. And to-day I do believe 
that many of us hope and yearn for the rest from 
our sinning, which shall be ours under the Divine 
rule of Christ. O happy, obedient day when this 
Man shall be our peace ! And it may be ours soon 
if we choose wisely and quickly. 

''The choice is no vague nor doubtful one. 



292 If Ye Fulfil the Royal Law 

High on the desert mountain, full descried, sits 
throned the tempter with his old promise, the 
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. He 
still calls you to your labour, as Christ to your rest, 
labour and sorrow, base desire and cruel hope. So 
far as you desire to possess rather than to give ; so 
far as you look for power to command instead of 
to bless; so far as your own prosperity seems to 
you to issue out of contest or rivalry, of any kind, 
with other men, or other nations; so long as the 
hope before you is for supremacy instead of love; 
and your desire is to be greatest instead of least, 
first instead of last, so long you are serving the 
Lord of all that is last and least. The last enemy 
that shall be destroyed is Death; and you shall 
have death's crown with the worm coiled in it ; and 
death's wages with the worm feeding on them; 
kindred of the earth shall you become; saying 
to the grave, 'Thou art my father,' and to the 
worm, *Thou art my mother and my sister.' 

''Heave you to judge and to choose between this 
labour and the peace bequeathed; these wages 
and the gift of the Morning Star; this obedience 
and the doing of the will which shall enable you 
to claim another kindred than that of the earth, 
and to hear another voice than that of the grave, 
saying, 'My brother and sister and mother.'" 
— Ruskin. 

Let us lend ourselves wilHngly and gladly to the 
grand and (we may be sure) universally beneficent 



A New Heaven and a New Earth 293 

design and experience which the Master of our 
souls has appointed to our Race, and which in 
His infinitely perfect Judgment He pronounced 
to be Good. Let us submit ourselves to the 
"Master's touch." 

Horatius Bonar has beautifully defined this act 
of loving submission to the Great Royal Law of 
God. He says : 

In the still air the music lies unheard, 
In the rough marble beauty hides unseen, 

To make the music and the beauty, needs 
The Master's touch, the sculptor's chisel keen. 

Great Master, touch us with Thy skilful Hand, 

Let not Thy music that is in us die, 
Great Sculptor, hew and polish us; nor let 

Hidden and lost. Thy form within us lie. 

Spare not the stroke, do with us as Thou wilt, 
Let there be naught unfinished, broken, marred, 

Complete Thy purpose that we may become 
Thy perfect image, thou our God, our Lord. 



The End. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

PreservatlonTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 1 6066 
(724)779-2111 









LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 085 317 3 






